


Fate, I Guess (Previously The Red String)

by irishgirl321



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Eventual Romance, F/M, Five Year Mission, Red String of Fate, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-30
Updated: 2018-09-08
Packaged: 2019-01-26 22:19:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 37,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12567452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/irishgirl321/pseuds/irishgirl321
Summary: Sometimes people have to never meet in-order to come together. Sometimes all a love story needs is countless missed connections, a well-used book, and some spilled coffee. Fate can be a strange thing.Reboot!McCoy x Reader.Previously titled "The Red String."





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This starts soon after Star Trek: Into Darkness ends, pre 5 year mission (though it will go into that).
> 
> For those who don't know about the concept of the 'red thread of fate,' it is a belief that stems from Chinese legend. It says that if two people are fated to be together, the gods tie an invisible red thread around their ankles or little fingers so they will find each-other. This thread may tangle or stretch, but it never breaks.
> 
> While this myth won't really feature in the story, as neither Leonard or the Reader have a red thread around them, it goes along with the main theme of the story of two people being drawn together.

** Chapter One - You**

It was a series of missed connections. The first time you saw him (but he didn’t see you), was at a lecture at the Academy. He was giving it, he had been invited as a guest speaker. Knowing him as you did later on you’d laugh and ask him why he’d agreed to it, dealing with a room full of students didn’t really seem to be something he’d openly do with his free time. He’d tell you that it it gave him something to do during the year after the battle with Khan. He had to occupy himself somehow while waiting for the Enterprise to be rebuilt for her five year mission.

That was a fair answer. Smart men did not like to be bored. Smart women either, for that matter, which was why you complained so much upon arrival to the lecture theatre.

Ducking into the room, head down to try not to attract attention, you descended the steps of the lecture theatre, and slid into the row beside your friend, Amira. Passing her latte, you took a swig of your own before twisting to face her.

“What was so important that I had to be here?” You hissed with narrowed eyes. “I didn’t have to be up for another two hours!”

Amira took you in, hair in a scraggly ponytail, dark circles under your eyes, and the scent of alcohol emanating from your pores.

“How was last night?” She smirked.

You rolled your eyes. “Seriously, what’s going on?”

“They have the CMO of the Enterprise in as a guest speaker. I know it’s your dream to get onto that ship. I figured you might like to hear him speak.”

It was nice that she thought of you, but still…

“Amira, I’m not a medic. I’d get up for Captain Kirk or Commander Spock, but not for the doctor. I won’t understand anything. It’ll bore me.”

She stuck her tongue out at you. “Oh, just give it a chance. You could find it interesting. It’s a lecture on advanced First Aid, you may learn something helpful.”

You grunted, but settled back into your chair and took another swig of coffee. All students were required to take basic First Aid during their years at the Academy, which you had way back in your first year. Advanced First Aid only had to be taken by medics, which you were not.

“I can’t believe you woke me up to hear another old guy jabber on,” you groaned.

Then, the door at the other side of the theatre opened. The usual professor entered first, talking to someone behind him. You had had him for a number of classes some years ago and knew he was a total bore. He had one of those dreary, monotone voices which could put you to sleep in minutes. Another man followed him. The other man was tall, over 6ft, dwarfing your professor. He had a shock of sleek dark hair, and that was as much as you could make out about him. Professor Alberts led the man down the steps, and over onto a raised dais at the front of the lecture theatre. The dark haired man had his back to you, and set a stack of books down on a chair against the back wall. Professor Alberts walked over to the podium, and adjusted his ear piece.

“As you all know,” he said, clasping his hands together, “we have a very special guest today. The Chief Medical Officer of the Enterprise has agreed to speak with us. I want you all to give him your full, and undivided attention. To hear someone like this speak is a once in a life time opportunity-“

“Expect for the nurses he yells at who he works with,” you quipped snidely.

Amira tried to smother a smile.

The CMO turned around, and all over the room you noticed girls straightening up, or flipping their hair back. Heck, even you reacted, even though you already had a ‘kind-of’ boyfriend.  But hey, looking never hurt anybody. Unless you were caught doing it.

The man was handsome. You already knew he was tall, but he was broad too in a muscular way. Hulking shoulders and strong arms. His dark hair was full and shining with health and his skin was tanned from days spent in the sun. He had a slight frown on his face, and you were unsure if it was because something annoyed him or if he just had a resting grump-face.

“Hello, everybody. Thanks for showin’ up.” He drawled.

An accent. Somewhere in the southern states, maybe?

“I’m Dr McCoy, Leonard McCoy, and the Enterprise’s CMO. Or I will be when there is an Enterprise again.”

A few girls giggled but you didn’t think it was a joke, more of a statement of fact.

“I’m here to talk to you about advanced First Aid, and to show you examples of more common cases I’ve had to deal with while visiting other planets. There will be pictures, so if you’re squeamish you can leave the room, but also you’re in the wrong line of work. Everyone understand?”

There was a murmur of agreement.

“Let’s get started then.”

The lecture continued with McCoy showing pictures of some pretty horrific injuries. He explained them all and their treatments in a matter of fact kind of manner, and you had no doubt he also expressed this manner when actually dealing with these injuries. He was calm, collected, and you got the idea he really knew what he was doing. Even if he wasn’t so good looking, you still wouldn’t mind having him as a doctor. He was interesting too, even with his matter-of-fact, kind of grumpy voice. Also the fact that he was super good-looking held your attention.

What you most enjoyed was when he referred to cases from the Enterprise. Just hearing about the ship of your dreams had you lapping up all of his information, and only strengthened your resolve to apply in a few months’ time.

Amira was totally engrossed in his talk, her pen scribbling furiously against the page as she took notes. Her coffee sat forgotten and mostly full, a waste of money for you but you didn’t really mind.

It was over quickly, and you found yourself feeling slightly sad about it for some weird reason.

“Thank you for your attention.” McCoy said smoothly. “I hope you learned something from this lesson, and I hope to see some of you aboard the Enterprise in some months’ time.”

Before you could stop yourself, your hands hit each other as you started to clap. For a second it was just you, and you nearly died of embarrassment for being that one cringey person, but then Amira joined you, and so did everyone else. Applause echoed all over the lecture theatre. It wasn’t the usual polite applause given when a guest finishes speaking, but no one actually found their talk that interesting. This applause was vigorous, thunderous, and genuine. McCoy did not smile at the applause, but his expression softened slightly and he dipped his head in a gesture that you perceived to be both embarrassed and pleased.

When the applause died down people began to shuffle out of the theatre. You picked up your bag, including your now empty coffee cup, presuming Amira was doing the same. When you turned around she was already standing, obviously eager to get past you.

“I want to go and ask a question of the case of Gonal ring-worm infection.”

You shuddered, remembering the picture shown. “Better you than me,” you said, moving to allow her to slip past you.

She trotted down the stairs, and approached the doctor, who was gathering his books. He turned, obviously hearing her approach, and you watched as she engaged him in conversation. He was obviously pleased with her question as he smiled briefly, before launching into a long-winded explanation complete with hand motions and all. You lingered awkwardly, still not having moved from the row of seats where you sat. You wondered if you should go down too, but then decided not to as he may think you have a question. You’d be strangely embarrassed to have nothing of value to say to him.

He’d later scold you for not coming up to him at that time, saying _‘goddamit, if only you’d had some damn nerve back then we could have started this thing a whole lot sooner.’_ This would cause you to laugh, and remark that he wasted plenty of opportunities to approach you too. So you didn’t go up to him. Instead, you left the room and waited for Amira outside the door. You heard the doctor laugh and wondered what she possibly could have said about Gonal ring-worm that was so funny.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trust me I know I have a lot of other fics to update. But hey, I already have fourteen chapters of this written and I don't seem to be slowing down, so I figured I'd give it an upload. Also I'm curious to see how my newer material is received.
> 
> This is another one of those fics where these chapters are a tester, I may not continue if there isn't a whole lot of interest so let me know if you like it!
> 
> The Star Trek obsession started sometime last year. Really out of the blue.

** Chapter Two - Leonard **

The next near-encounter took place just under two weeks later. It was nearly the same as before; Amira was there, you were once again in a crowd of people, and you smelled like drink (but this time it was because you were in the process of drinking). Of course, the most striking similarity to the previous time that you had met was the fact that neither of you actually spoke to one another. The thing that made this time different was that now, he saw you and you didn’t see him.

It was at a bar, of all places. A fancy enough one. Not the kind of place Leonard McCoy would find himself in often. He much preferred quiet, old man bars where he could wear what he liked, drink cheap beer, and be left alone to drink in peace. Obviously, he was not in this new-fangled, chandeliered bar of his own accord. He had been forced out by Kirk to attend the birthday celebrations of one of the many girls Kirk had going at the time. When you asked him much later, he didn’t even remember the girl’s name (as if he ever did with any of them, they weren’t around long enough).

They were at the bar. Kirk was leaning away from him, talking to the girl. He had his usual flirtatious smirk on, and the girl was lapping it up. Leonard couldn’t even join the conversation if he wanted to, their heads were close together and they were murmuring to each other. He doubted he wanted to hear what they were saying. One of her friends, a confident pretty brunette, had tried to talk to him but he simply brushed her off. He wasn’t really interested.

There was a group of girls and guys sitting down near the glazed floor to ceiling windows at the front of the bar. The table in-front of them had colourful bags containing multicoloured tissue paper peeking out the top. They must have been birthday presents. They didn’t interact with Kirk’s girl at all, so Leonard deducted that they were a separate group. This place was popular for birthday parties it seemed. One of the girls who was looking out the window suddenly straightened up, hissing to her other friends. They all twisted to stare out the window, watching two people making their way towards the door. The girl who reached it first pulled it open.

Leonard found that he recognised her. It was the girl from the Academy, the one who had come down to ask him a question when his lecture was over. He thought about going over to say hello to her, he could use some actual intelligent conversation right now, but was put off as the other girl stepped through the door. Catching sight of the group at the table, your hands flew to your mouth and your face lit up with delight and surprise.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!”  The group shouted in unison.

Laughing, you turned to hug Amira, who had obviously been the one to lure you to this surprise celebration. “Thank you guys so much!” you cried, making your way through the crowd to hug each person.

You were directed to the vacant chair at the head of the table, where you sat. A gold-painted crown that appeared to be handmade from cardboard, with cotton balls glued in place of where jewels would be was put on your head by a chuckling dark haired guy. You were laughing into your hands as your friends took pictures of you. Leonard thought you might take it off when they were done, but you kept it on. You seemed to really like it.

He looked at the girl who Kirk was seeing, who was wearing her own birthday tiara. This one was metal, delicate, and fancy looking. He did not doubt that this girl would definitely not be as happy about a cardboard and cotton crown. Compared to your party, where your friends smiled at you with affection as you laughed and downed the drinks they pushed towards you, the group Leonard was with was not having as much fun. However, that could be due to him bringing down the mood. Ordering himself a whiskey, Leonard found himself watching you. He wasn’t one for loud parties, normally the sight of your group would repel him, but he found he could not stop himself from looking at the girl in the make shift crown. The waiter set down another drink next to you, and you thanked him earnestly.

“Bones? What do you think?” Kirk interrupted him, drawing his attention away.

“What?” He asked distractedly.

“This place, it’s really nice, huh?”

“Um, yeah, sure thing, Jim,” he replied unconvincingly.

For once, he wished it wasn’t just him and Kirk out for the night. Heck, he would have even been happy if the pointy eared bastard himself came along. He may be cold and difficult to talk to, but it was better than this crowd.

“I don’t think we’re all drunk enough.” Kirk smirked at the girl. He had definitely noticed Bone’s bad mood and was trying to remedy the situation. “Yo, bartender, another round!”

“I just got a drink, Jim,” Leonard protested, but Kirk soon pushed a shot into his hand.

Tequila. Jesus. What did Kirk think he was? Some college girl?

“WOOOOO! TEQUILA SHOTS!” A joyous yell made its way across the room to him. He turned to see you and your friends, all standing, removing shots from the tray held by the waiter. “On three!” You cried. “One… Two… Three!” You threw your head back, swallowing the liquid in one go. You immediately rocked forwards, hand going to cover your mouth. The crown miraculously stayed on your head, even when you then shook your hips in a little dance afterwards.

“Whatcha lookin’ at, Bones?” Kirk’s voice came again, and this time there was a teasing tone to it.

“Nothin’,” He grumbled.

“She is cute,” Kirk leaned over to whispered conspiratorially, dropping his voice so that the girl he was with couldn’t hear.

“Who?” Leonard knew who Kirk was referring to, but wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.

“Crown girl, over there. You’ve been looking for a while.”

Leonard shrugged. “It’s interesting.”

“Why don’t you go talk to her?”

“Because I’m not interested in _her._ ”

“You’re lying. You’ve been watching her since she came in.”

“It’s her birthday. She’s here with her friends, I doubt she wants some random guy approaching her. Besides, she’s like ten years younger than me.”

Kirk winked. “Stop making excuses. Go and talk to her.”

“She could have a boyfriend.”

Almost as if some higher power had heard him and decided to mess with him, at that moment the door opened and a tall, blond haired man stepped into the bar. He caught sight of you, and grinned. Feeling his gaze on you, you looked up. Your face broke into one of the brightest smiles he’d ever seen as you leapt to your feet. The man moved towards you, picking you up and spinning you around a bit. He put you down in your original position. Your arms were around his neck and you were laughing. Still grinning, he brushed a strand of hair from your face and leaned in to kiss you. Around you your friends let out faked groans and “ewwws.”

“See?” Leonard laughed, turning to Kirk.

He wasn’t crushed or even upset by what he’d just seen. He didn’t know you. Yeah he found you interesting, but this was no love at first sight scenario. There was no tingling sensation or a feeling of ‘meant to be.’ He had found you attractive, but you had a boyfriend. As simple as that.

“Plenty of other lookers here,” Kirk offered.

Leonard decided to just not answer him. It was getting late. He was tired and he had to drive to visit family tomorrow morning. Also he just very simply did not want to be there any longer. He wasn’t having fun. He’d much prefer to be at home with a good book and some whiskey.

“Think it’s time for me to head off,” he informed Kirk.

“Awwh… Are you sure you can’t stay a bit longer?” Kirk said, but his eyes were now on the other birthday girl, who was batting her eyes seductively at him.

“Nah… You have fun though,” Leonard patted his friend on the shoulder.

Kirk hummed an affirmation, only half listening, and then moved over to whisper in his girl’s ear. Leonard picked up his jacket from the bar stool beside him and swung over his shoulder. He turned towards the door, but caught sight of you once more. The boyfriend had disappeared, maybe to the crowded bar or the bathroom or something, and you sat talking with a few of your girl-friends. He looked at you again, for a few seconds, thinking, and then swung back towards the bar once more. He beckoned the bartender over and put a note into his hand.

“That girl over there,” he nodded towards you. “The one in the cardboard crown, give her a shot of nice tequila. Tell her happy birthday.”

“Who should I say it’s from?” the bartender asked.

“No one. I’m leaving now.”

With that, he was off. He walked past your group, watching you from the corner of his eye. You didn’t look up, even as the door closed rather hard behind him on his way out. You only looked up when the bartender himself brought you a shot of expensive tequila. You asked who it was from, but the bartender told you the man had left, you peered out the window trying to get a glimpse. The street, while not being crowded, had a few people on it and so you couldn’t figure out who it was. As for Leonard, he turned around at that moment to look back, and could just about make out your face gazing out the window, searching for him.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have an assignment due tomorrow that's 60% of my grade for that class... I have most of it done but to be honest it's complete garbage and I have no idea what I'm saying. So... Figured I'd upload this to give me something else to do. It's not taking any time out of my day as it was written weeks ago. Ugh. I'm so done with final year.
> 
> Hope y'all are good and that you enjoy!

** Chapter Three - You **

The mystery of the tequila man bugged you for days for some reason. It was a really nice gesture, this man sending you a drink upon seeing it was your birthday, but expecting nothing in return to the extent that he wasn’t even around for you to thank him and ask if he wanted to join you guys. However, you did not find out who had sent you that shot for quite a while. The next time you saw Leonard (but of course, he did not see you) was in the library in the Academy, around three weeks later. It was almost time for midterms, and you had your arms full of books. Qualifying as an advanced weaponry and tactical specialist meant a lot of technical reading, and so a lot of time with the library.

Balancing six books stacked up so high that your chin rested on them, you made your way carefully back to the seat you had dumped your bag on when you came in. You were alone today. Amira was away visiting her dad and step-mom out of state and David… Well, let’s just say things weren’t going well with you and David. You hadn’t even been officially together for long at all, but already he was changing in attitude towards you. He no longer texted you often, or called you at night. He was withdrawn and always seemed distracted. You had been worried he was having doubts, but didn’t want to ask him until midterms were over. You’d try avoid a break-up during them if you could, you didn’t need that distracting you. Plus, it could even be a case that he was simply feeling the exam stress too. In any case, you had told him you needed time away to study today.

You got out your notepad and a few pens, finding that even with all the advances in tech, you learned best from simply writing things down yourself. You picked up the first book, one on the predominant weaponry used on every technology adept planet, and began to write. You were around twenty minutes in when a loud cry of “dammit, man! I’m only 5 minutes late returning it! Can you not just give me a break!” interrupted your work.

The voice sounded familiar. You frowned, putting down your pen to scrutinise what was happening. Even though the counter was half hidden by a shelf you could still make out a tall, broad shouldered man standing at the desk, waving his hands at the librarian.

“Are you really gonna charge me for being FIVE MINUTES overtime?!”

The librarian tried to shush him but the man was not backing down. It was amusing to watch, a nice distraction from all your problems and worries.

“Sir, every other student has to pay a fine when returning their books late-”

“I’m not a student! I’m the Chief Medical Officer of the Enterprise!”

With that, you realised who this was. The handsome Dr McCoy, back again. However this time he was ten times grumpier than the last time you’d seen him. The argument persisted, much to the annoyance of some others around you who were trying to study. One person attempted to shush the angry doctor, but only received a death stare and an impressive string of curses in return. Eventually, probably for the sake of keeping the peace in the library, and to prevent McCoy’s head from exploding with rage, the librarian agreed to dismiss the fine.

“See? This all could have been so much easier if you’d done it from the get-go,” McCoy lectured.

The librarian nodded, not finding it worth continuing the fight by saying something else.

“Now, if you don’t mind, I’ll be in the corner, reading my book. I brought it from home, so you can’t charge me for it,” the doctor snapped.

He turned and began to walk down into the section of the room you were in. The study area of the library that you were in was surrounded on three sides by rows and rows of shelves at all sides. Where they stopped, long lines of white desks extended across the would-be empty space. There were about six rows of them, giving people ample space to study. On the left hand side, the only side not bordered by shelves, was the wall and windows. There were swivel armchairs beside the windows, perfect for people who simply wanted to read instead of write. It was there McCoy headed. The sunlight glinted on his dark hair as he sat in the armchair that was in a perfect horizontal line from where you sat. Still, it was far away enough from you that he wouldn’t notice you looking at him. The chance of him seeing you decrease as he swivelled around to face the window, leaving you with the back of his chair to look at, and the top of his head.

After a few minutes you returned to your study, eager to get one of the books finished. You did not have to read everything (thank god), and so in an hour after reading about weaponry used by humans, Vulcans, Romulans and Klingons, among others, you were done. You sat back and unscrewed the cap on your water bottle to take a swig, slumping back in your chair. Time for a five minute break. You’d make flash cards after to test yourself with later. Glancing around, you saw that Dr McCoy has now turned away from the window and was facing you. It was coming up on 1 o’clock, when the sun is said to be strongest. It was beaming through the window so you figured he’d turned as it was a bit too much for his eyes. He was still pretty engrossed in his book, not even looking up when people walked past him. You were curious to see what it was, but he had his fingers over the title. Probably some medical book you couldn’t understand anyhow.

 _‘Has he ever written a medical book?’_ You thought, remembering his stories during Amira’s lecture.

Pulling your PADD out of your bag, you typed his name into the online search bar. The results loaded in seconds. No book, but a number of articles about his achievements. Out of curiosity, you clicked into one of them. This article was a bit more of a profile, including his birthday, qualifications, and some aspects of his personal life. You read he’d been married and subsequently divorced, and that it seemed to have been a messy one. You read that he was close personal friends with Captain James Tiberias Kirk, and that he had aided him and saved him more than once. Overall, Leonard McCoy seemed like a very impressive man. Apart from the occasional loud (and you figured, harmless) hissy fit, you had no idea why anyone would let someone like the doctor go.

“Wow, I can see you’re studying really hard,” an annoyed voice said coolly above, making you jump.

Slamming your hand over your PADD’s screen, you looked up to find David standing above you.

“I was curious, I went to a guest lecture of his sometime last month,” you sounded defensive, which you felt like you had right to be. David was definitely shaping up to make this into a big deal.

“Oh? What lecture was he giving that had to do with weaponry?”

“It wasn’t weaponry. Amira asked me to go with her.”

“All the girls say he’s good looking.”

“So?”

“Do you?” David sounded angry.

“He’s not ugly, so yeah, but I don’t understand why you’re making such a big deal out of this. Now, it probably is time for me to get back to my work. I really don’t need you around acting like this, so if you wouldn’t mind, sit away from me.” Your voice was like acid, but really you just felt bewildered and hurt. _What was going on?_

David huffed, and instead of apologising and sitting down beside you like you secretly hoped he’d do, he walked away. You heard him sit down a few rows behind you. As distracting as it was to know that he was there, at least you didn’t have to see him. Part of you was tempted to glance over at Dr McCoy, to see if he’d noticed, but you didn’t want to do something to annoy David even more. You ignored the urge, and tried to get back to your study.

A few minutes later, someone’s PADD beeped from across the room. Glancing from the corner of your eye you saw McCoy put down his book and pick his PADD up from the little desk beside his armchair. Starting, he swore loudly and leapt to his feet. He grabbed his briefcase off the ground in one fluid motion, and took off at a run out of the library. Some kind of emergency, you figured. Leonard McCoy seemed like the type to make people run for him, not the other way around.

Shifting your eyes back to your desk, you looked at the open book in front of you. It was about short range weapons, and contained detailed descriptions and diagrams of the components of each. You tried to take it in, you really did, however, the words swam on the page and you couldn’t focus. Realising that it was literally futile to attempt to continue to work in the library, you sighed and began to pack up your stuff. You planned to check a few of the books out and bring them back to your room to work on again after a nap. You put the ones you didn’t need back on their shelves, then returned to your seat to grab your bags and the books you were going to take with you.

Sliding along until you were out of the aisle, you didn’t look back at David. Instead you walked to the walled side of the room, allowing the light from the windows to pour over you. You began to walk towards the exit, but something caught your eye. Still sitting on the side of the armchair, was McCoy’s book. He’d obviously forgotten it in his haste to leave the library. It was still open, and you picked it up, reading a few of the words on the page. You didn’t recognise the story so you flipped it over to look at the cover. _The Count of Monte Cristo_.

_Ah, so he likes really old books._

You debated leaving it there, but then figured that someone else with less inclination to give it back might take it. You unzipped your bag and put it in among your notepad and PADD. You’d give it to him when you saw him again, or if you didn’t see him soon you’d find some way to get it to him. You rezipped the bag and walked through the library towards the exit. From there it was a ten minute trek across the campus to your room. Your roommate Karim was nowhere to be seen, so you had the place to yourself. Plopping down onto the bed you peeled off your boots and threw yourself back across the bed, hands behind your head and staring at the ceiling.

You really should be studying, you knew that, but your head was just not in the right place to do it. You really didn’t know what had gotten into David, and you needed some sort of distraction. The holographic TV wasn’t working and you’d read all the books in the room… Wait. Sitting up again you pulled your bag up onto the bed and pulled out Dr McCoy’s book. You turned to rearrange your pillows at the top of the bed, before settling back against the head-board. It felt a bit weird to read a book you knew someone else was reading, a book that belonged to someone else, but it felt comforting. In a weird way, it felt like you weren’t alone.

He had obviously had the book for a while and read it a few times, it was dog-eared and the pages were yellow, despite it being an edition that emerged in your life time. It was nice to see that someone else still preferred paperbacks to electronics too. You opened the first page and began reading.

Hours passed and the day became the night. Karim came home and you didn’t even look up or ask her where she had been. Mostly because you knew she’d been out at Adia’s. She usually was nowadays, not that you minded having the place to yourself. You definitely hadn’t minded when you and David had been getting along.

Karim settled into her bed without saying too much, obviously quite tired, so you turned off the main lamp and instead pinned your little reading light to the top of the book. You read late into the night, into the early morning. You ending up devouring that book in a single sitting. At the end, you could understand why it had been apparently handled and read so many times. You loved it.

Thoughts finally free of David and your relationship drama, you were able to fall asleep.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... I am back. Working on finishing a loooong chapter (I went back to rewrite thirteen), but here's number four!
> 
> Thanks for all kudos, comments and subscriptions! Let me know in the comments below if you like it! I NEED VALIDATION.

Chapter Four - Leonard

It was exactly two weeks after the library day that Leonard saw you again. While staying in San Francisco as the Enterprise was being fixed, he made use of the facilities that Starfleet Academy had to offer. They were free to him, so why the hell wouldn’t he? He had been doing the occasional round at the Academy hospital, but they had all the doctors they needed so he was not actually rostered in that much. Also the fact was that the head doctor of the Academy’s hospital was not fond of Leonard, so he stopped him from getting work when possible. It was not such a big deal, Leonard was given decent leave pay, but he just would have liked something to do.

It was his evening off, and he decided to go to the gym. He hadn’t been for a while and knew he needed to start going again to stay in shape. He had asked Jim to come, but he was busy, so he ended up going by himself. It was the start of winter at this stage and the air held a certain bite to it. He walked briskly across the quad and into the gym building. Scanning his ID card, he headed up the stairs to the men’s changing rooms. He changed into his workout clothes, consisting of black tracksuit bottoms and a blue workout t-shirt. Grabbing his earphones from his bag, he rooted around to find his music player. The annoying thing about advances in technology was that they could fit more data into a smaller space, and his music player was almost too tiny for him to be able to work properly. In his defence, the buttons were very small. Plugging them in and turning on some music, he headed out onto the floor.

This particular floor of the gym wasn’t packed, but it wasn’t exactly empty either. Men and women were scattered across the floor, either on their own or in pairs of two. Leonard headed over the a free weights machine on the other side of the room, and began to adjust the settings on the pad in front of it. He sat down, reaching for the bar above his head and began to pull it down and back up, working his arms. He’d started himself on a light enough setting (for him) to ease himself back into it. He found his eyes wandering the room as he continued the repetitive motions, ignoring the strain in his muscles. At the other side of the room, past the sparring ring that lay in the middle, was the treadmills. Two people were running on them, side by side.

For a second, he couldn’t place where he’d seen you before, then with a jolt he realised who you were. The girl with the cardboard crown from the bar, and the dark haired guy who’d put the crown on your head. You seemed to be talking to each-other amongst panted breaths, but between the music in his ears and the distance he couldn’t actually make out what you were saying to one another. A sheen of seat covered you both, showing wet patches on the guy’s grey t-shirt. No such stains showed on you, as were in proper work-out gear, a sport’s bra and shorts. Your feet pounded along the track and you tried to control your inhale and exhalations. A few seconds passed, and your hand slapped the stop button and the treadmill ground to a halt. Your friend did the same. He held onto the bar at the front, bending over and trying to regain his breath. You on the other hand, while shining with sweat, mopped your face with the towel you had hanging on the bar in front of you, and stepped off the machine.

You walked over to the bench and picked up a sparkly purple water bottle, taking a swig. You picked up a second water bottle, this one black, and threw it towards your friend. He only just managed to catch it. You said something, and the guy seemed to groan at first, before nodding and straightening up. You walked closer to Leonard, and he thought for a second that you and your gym buddy were coming over to do weights, but you stopped in the middle of the room at the sparring ring. You had your back to him as you picked up the sparring gloves and hat. Taking a container out of your back pocket, you popped in a gumshield. Leonard stopped pulling the weights and fiddled with his music player, turning the volume all the way down to the first bar. He was curious to hear what was going on.

“You know, if I knew you were gonna use me as a punching bag I wouldn’t have asked you to come.” The guy groaned as you both ducked under the ropes and into the ring.

“You were the one who said we’d go to work out all my anger,” you reminded him with a scowl.

“Yeah but I figured like running or weights,” the guy cast a mournful look in Leonard’s direction. “Not you beating me up. _I_ didn’t cheat on you.”

Your face became a thundercloud, and the guy winced as he realised he’d struck a nerve.

“______, I’m sorry… I wasn’t thinking...”

For a second you looked like you’d snap back at him, but then your face softened and just became sad instead. “It’s okay. Thanks for trying to help me.”

“The offer is still there if you want,” your friend reminded you. “I really don’t mind punching him in the face.”

You laughed (although it seemed kind of forced). “No, Logan, it’s alright. I’d prefer you not to get into trouble so close to graduation.”

Your gym buddy, Logan, shrugged. “Offers still there all the same.”

A small smile was now on your face. You and Logan touched gloves twice, before backing away from each-other.

“Ready?” You asked.

“Ready,” he confirmed.

You darted forward as quick as a cobra, and threw an uppercut to his chin. He blocked it clumsily at the last second, and you followed by dropping down and sending a fist to his stomach. He stumbled back, but then straightened, lumbering forward towards you. He attempted to grab you but you were to quick, spinning away and kicking him in the back of the knee. His leg buckled and he almost went down. Before he could right himself you were behind him, arm around his neck in a choke-hold. He struggled and bucked, trying to throw you off, but you tightened your arm. After a few seconds, he slapped your aforementioned arm twice, conceding. You released him and he fell forward onto his hands and knees, coughing and rubbing his throat. You knelt beside him, patting his back.

“Sorry. Was I too rough?”

“No more than usual,” Logan wheezed.

Leonard was surprised. Both with you and Logan. You, with your purple sparkly water bottle, did not look like a fighter at all, and yet you had just beaten a man almost twice your size in under two minutes. There was definitely more than met the eye with the cardboard crown girl. Logan as well surprised him. Instead of getting flustered and defensive about being beaten by a girl, he showed no sign of annoyance or anger towards you. In-fact, when he had gotten his breath back and was up on two feet again, he was asking you to show him the moves you used slowly, copying you as you mimicked your previous lightning fast actions. When he didn’t get something quite right you’d adjust his stance or his arms, explaining the follow through.

Leonard suddenly became aware that he wasn’t the only one who’d been watching you two intently. Looking to his left, there was a man standing just beside the end of the row of weight’s machines. He was in normal clothes, obviously not planning on attending the gym. He must have come in the small back door. He recognised him from your birthday party as the guy who’d kissed you.

Logan caught sight of him first, looking up from where you were adjusting his stance with your feet from behind him. He stiffened immediately. You peered around your friend’s bulk to see what had gotten his attention, and froze. At first your face paled, and then turned an angry red colour.

“______,” the man called out to you pleadingly.

“What the fuck do you want?” Logan snapped, moving between you and this guy.

“I want to talk to ______,” the guy demanded, moving closer.

“I really don’t feel like talking to you, David,” you responded, fury in your flashing eyes.

Leonard was unsure whether or not to move, not wanting to attract the rage so clearly churning inside you.

“______, please,” the guy lamented. “I made a mistake.” 

He now stood at the edge of the ring, holding onto one of the ropes and looking at you pleadingly.

_Jesus, it was literally something out of a damn rom-com._

“I have no interest in talking to you.”

“______-“

“Seriously, man, leave her alone,” Logan warned him.

You busied yourself with adjusting the straps on your boxing gloves. It was a difficult task to do when they were encumbering both your hands, and seemed to take all your concentration. It was probably why you had decided to do it.

“I just want to talk-”

“Then get in the ring,” you said, head snapping up to challenge him.

“I…” The guy began to protest.

You looked at Logan. “Give him your gloves. Your head guard too.”

Logan stared into your eyes for a second, communicating silently with you. After a moment he smirked and began to take off his gear. Ridding himself of it in a few seconds, he reached out to touch your arm before walking away, over the side of the ring to where the blond guy stood. He threw the gear at him hard, so that the guy staggered back with the impact as it hit his chest.

“I’d ring for an ambulance now,” he remarked as he climbed down from the ring. “You’re gonna need it.”

As a superior officer, Leonard wondered if he should stop this. However he felt like you may come after him if he did, and also he remembered the earlier conversation between you and Logan. If there was one thing Leonard really hated, it was goddamn cheaters.

Logan wandered over, sitting down on the weights machine two down from Leonard. He didn’t pay the doctor any heed, eyes focused on the ring. The blond guy made his way slowly up. You were watching him, moving up and down quickly on the balls of your feet. Warming up, Leonard realised.

“Touch gloves!” Logan shouted, obviously taking on the role of referee.

You did as commanded, the man pleading with you as you did but you gave him no heed. If anything you seemed to retreat into yourself, a strained control coming over your face.

“On three,” Logan said sternly. “One… Two… Three!”

You moved forward with an explosion of power, ducking under the guy’s outstretched hands as he tried to stop you, and launching an upwards kick into his stomach. The force behind it made Leonard shudder. It hadn’t occurred to him before, but you had been pulling your punches with Logan. You followed with a spinning kick into his shoulder, sending him staggering. Your elbow shot towards his solar plexus, which he managed to knock off trajectory, but you changed hands last minute and sent a hard jab into his throat. His breath caught and he spluttered, no longer able to talk but only able to weakly defend himself against your onslaught.

Your other hand shot up once again to grip his hair, grabbing it and yanking it down. His head was forced forward, and you pumped your knee into his chest twice before he managed to push you away. You lunged forward again, and this time he actually tried to hit you. A roundhouse punch, sailing towards your face. Leonard thought it was going to hit you, and then that would be game over. As fast as you were, you wouldn’t be able to take a hit like that. 

Once again though, you surprised him. Comprehending the punch, you threw yourself towards the floor, landing on your stomach with your hands under you. The hit just missed you. From there, you pushed yourself up, one hand staying on the ground while the other, along with the other side of your body, twisted into the air. Your legs shot out and you hit him with a spinning kick from the ground, sweeping his legs from under him. He thudded to the ground on his back, and then you were on top of him, pinning him. Before you could attack again, he slapped the ground twice. Conceding.

You could no longer attack without getting into trouble. Injuries in sparring were understood and the perpetrator not penalised because both parties entered the ring willingly, understanding the risks. Purposely injuring someone outside a match would result in a disciplinary hearing, or even worse.

“_____,” Logan called out to you. “Leave him. It’s done.”

You were still sitting on the man, breathing heavily and arms trembling. Leonard was afraid you might hit him again. Your arm muscles twitched, and he prepared himself to intervene, but instead you snapped out of whatever trance you were in and stood up. Sweat coated your body, but you had not injuries at all. In the last half an hour, Leonard had seen you take on two grown men and come away without a scratch.

You looked down at the man below you with disdain. “Don’t try contact me again,” you warned. “If you do I’ll file for harassment. We are done. You guaranteed that when you slept with your ex-girlfriend.”

You stepped over him as he lay on the ground, writhing with pain. Logan walked over to you, handing you your water bottle. You chugged it down greedily, and he then passed you your towel. You mopped your brow again, and looked at your friend. He was grinning and you, and you couldn’t help but smile back slightly.

“I could really use a drink,” you told him.

“You could use a shower,” he laughed. “You look like you’ve been for a swim.”

“I brought stuff to shower in the changing rooms here,” you told him. “Wanna meet me outside in half an hour and we can head to the Clubhouse?” You referred to the Academy’s own bar.

“Yeah, I’m up for it,” Logan responded. “Will we go now?”

“No reason not to,” You agreed, ducking under the ropes and jumping off the ring. “Unless you have anything to do here?”

“I’m all good.” Your friend answered. “Just gonna grab my water bottle. You go on, I’ll see you soon.”

Casting one last smug look at the figure still lying on the ring, you headed off in the opposite direction from Leonard and towards the women's changing rooms. Logan wandered back over to the weights machine he had been sitting on, picking his bottle up off the ground. He saw Leonard looking at him and nodded.

“Quite the fighter, huh?”

“Yeah,” Leonard said. “She doesn’t look it.”

“Don’t judge a book by its cover.” Logan shrugs. “That’s what she tells me when I make fun of that new book she’s mad about.” 

Leonard was unsure how to respond to that rather unusual piece of information, but it didn’t matter. With a wave, Logan turned away from him, and left for the men’s changing room too.

Leonard stayed in the gym a bit longer. It was now nearly empty. He ran for twenty minutes on the treadmill, and then used the free weights for a bit. After a few sit ups on a yoga mat, he decided it was about time for him to head off. He stood upright and stretched his back with a groan, before beginning to leave the gym. Walking past the ring, he noticed that the blond guy was still lying there, moaning softly to himself.

“Hey, you okay there?” He found himself calling out. 

He was a doctor, after all.

“Yeah,” the guy groaned. Bruises were already beginning to form on him. “Fucking crazy bitch. She’s a total psycho. I don’t know what I ever saw in her.”

Leonard stared at him coolly, feeling a surge of dislike for the younger man. It was none of his business, but he couldn't help but feel annoyed on your behalf. He'd been raised well, and being unfaithful was not a gentlemanly or acceptable thing to do.

“Cheaters get what’s coming to them,” Leonard remarked coolly.

The guy glared at him, but said nothing more. Leonard's tall and muscular frame cut a pretty imposing figure, plus he now sported his signature scowl.

Leonard stepped forward again. He heard a small cracking noise and felt something give way under his foot. He looked down to see a PADD on the floor, which he had just stood on. His shoe had left a large crack down the middle of the screen. 

The PADD had lit up as it felt something(/his foot) pressing on it, and now showed the lock screen. The picture on it was a close-up of a guy and a girl, you and the blond guy, laughing and hugging each-other, smiling at the camera. The crack ran down the middle of the screen, in-between you and him, separating you. Only months later would he think back on the irony of that. 

He looked up at the guy, but he had not noticed the cracking noise, or how Leonard lingered awkwardly. Rather than apologising or saying anything at all, Leonard simply turned and left. He couldn’t be faulted for stepping on a PADD left uncovered on the ground.

_Let that asshole go buy a new one._


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit of Leonard because I have it already written and I got accepted to my top masters course option! I'M SO HAPPY GUYS!
> 
> Also uni exams are upcoming so most likely fic updates will be few and far between for the next month or so. Not to mention I work part-time in retail but will be expected to work a lot more over Christmas. So we shall see!
> 
> Enjoy this short piece of fun!

Chapter Five - You

The next time you properly saw Leonard McCoy, It was early December. The festive season was very much here, and people were out all wrapped up in scarves and fluffy coats. It was a cold night and your breath came out in visible puffs. You were out with a gaggle of your friends, attending the Christmas market set up on the Academy quad. Brightly lit stalls and flashing lights from carnival rides whizzing overhead made it look like something out of a story book. Despite the cold, excitement and your black puffy jacket was keeping you warm, and you had more than once happily announced that you could stay out all night. You did love this season, everyone very much came together during it.

You were at a counter of one of the wooden stalls, attempting to pick up the drinks you’d bought for your friends. Six drinks in total, which was very obviously far too many for you to attempt to pick up by yourself, but try you did. Scooping them together, your two thumbs and middle fingers forming a triangle as you attempted to pick them up all at once in your gloved hands, and almost spilt one in the process. Logan, who had been peering over your shoulder at just the right time, lunged forward and righted it before it could completely tip. He shot you a pointed look, and set it apart from the others on the counter. You grinned back ruefully.

“Thanks,” you chuckled.

“Guys, come and get your drinks before _____ spills them all!” Logan called back to your friends.

You stuck your tongue out at him, adding in an eye-roll for extra effect. As summoned, the others trooped forward; your roommate Karim, and her girlfriend, Amira and her new boyfriend, and Logan. They thanked you, and you smiled back. It was your turn to get the round after all, so thanks were not really in order. Each with a drink in hand, you all stepped away from the stall to make way for the next customers.

“Right, everyone, cheers!” Amira said, raising her styrofoam cup into the air.

With a cry of “cheers” from everyone else, you all touched your cups together in the air, some liquid falling from where they sloshed together. You frowned as it landed on your gloves, hoping that they wouldn't make them sticky. Together, everyone took a deep swig of warm mulled wine. After you had swallowed, you examined the cup with an approving expression. It was nice, heating you up from the inside. Exactly what was truly needed on a night like this.

“Shall we walk around?” Adia suggested.

She gestured around at all the old fashioned carnival rides and stalls made to look like log cabins. As you glanced around, you noted that there was a mistletoe hanging over you and Logan. You scoffed loudly, nudging him and batting your lashes flirtatiously at him. He pulled a disgusted face, causing you to burst out laughing.

"Guys?" Karim called your attention back to Adia's question.

With no better alternative in mind, you all agreed. You glanced up at the carnival rides above you. You loved carnivals and hoped that you’d get someone to agree to go on the rides with you. They weren't particularly dangerous, but Amira wasn't keen on heights, Karim was pretty super-glued to Adia tonight, and you didn't know Amira's boyfriend well enough to bug him about it. Out of them all, you figured your best bet was Logan. 

You were pretty sure he wouldn't mind, he seemed to like those things too. Plus, you had both previously said that you recognised the possibility of not being assigned to the same ship, and had a deal to spend as much time together as you could just in case. You followed the others, resolving to ask Logan. As you rounded the corner at the end of the line of stalls, Amira let out a loud laugh.

“Look who it is, _____,” she teased, swinging towards you. “Your soulmate.”

You followed the direction of her gaze, and spotted a tall figure and a shock of dark hair. Across the small make-shift square, Dr McCoy stood along with Captain Kirk and a few recognisable other members of the Enterprise crew. Kirk was in a Santa hat with a sweater saying "sit on my lap and tell me what you want" written on it, with a picture of a muscular Santa beside it. He undoubtedly must have been cold, having his jacket unzipped and opened so wide, but from what you had heard of him you figured he probably didn't mind if it meant he could show his top off to the world. To be honest, you didn't know how he got away with doing stuff like this. 

All the rest of the group were decked out in some kind of festive gear. Lieutenant Uhura wearing elf ears, and Sulu in an elf's hat. The man you recognised as the engineer, Mr Scott, had a red ball over his own nose and antlers on. You chuckled despite yourself when you properly took in the doctor's attire. He and another man you knew to be Commander Spock were the only ones not dressed up festively. _Yeah, judging by the not-so-happy expressions on their faces you were pretty sure they weren’t feeling the holiday cheer._

“Oh, I know that guy!” Logan exclaimed, having looked over to see what Amira was talking about.

Karim rolled her eyes. “Everyone knows Captain James T. Kirk, Logan.”

No,” Logan shot her an annoyed look. “The guy in the black jacket. Dark hair. Frowning.”

“McCoy?”

“Must be,” he shrugged. “He was in the gym… that night.”

You knew the one he was referring to.

“He was there?” You reacted with shock, not expecting that. “I didn’t see him.”

“He’d been over at the weights machines at the other side of the room.”

“Did he see…” You trailed off.

Logan knew what you meant and chuckled. “I think so. He didn’t seem against it though.”

“Another incident of McCoy and _____,” Amira giggled.

“Might need to get a restraining order,” you joked, before looking back at McCoy. “Shit, I don’t have his book.”

He had a cup on his hand, no doubt also of mulled wine. The more you looked at him the more evident his frown became. He really did not look like he wanted to be there at all. The Grinch was definitely out in force tonight. You wouldn't be surprised if he started robbing the decorative presents out from under night the big Christmas tree in the centre of the square.

“Guys, I’m gonna go get a burger,” you called to your friends, deciding that just standing there and staring at him was a bit creepy.

You hadn’t had time to eat all day between classes, going back to get changed, and rushing out the door to meet with the others. It was awful. Your stomach was grumbling painfully, and the smell of burgers topped with caramelized onions was floating through the air and making your mouth water. Your friends waved you off, promising to wait where they were, and you began to set off for the burger stall by yourself. You were wondering if they had sweet potato fries, before someone caught up to you. You looked beside you to see Karim’s girlfriend of five months trotting along beside you. _Unexpected._

“I could have brought you a burger if you wanted one!” you told her.

“I don’t want a burger, I was wondering if I could talk to you?” She asked.

“Um, yeah, go ahead.” 

You liked Adia, but you didn’t really know her super well. She worked in an investment bonds company and had a big apartment in the inner city. Karim often stayed there, the two of them never stayed at the dorm together. You were okay with that. It made night times less awkward. You didn’t care whether it was a heterosexual or homosexual couple, you just did  _not_ want people having sex in the bed beside you. They got their privacy and you didn't get reminded of your loneliness every 2.5 seconds.

“I was wondering if you’d be okay if I asked Karim to move in with me for the next few months?”

“Um…” _Woah, you were not expecting that._ “Adia, why are you asking me this?”

“Well, she’d technically still be assigned to the dorm with you until the end of the year. Since it’s already been all sorted and I don’t think they’d have anyone to put in the room at this stage in the year even if she was to give them notice she was moving. I was just wondering if you’d be okay with having the dorm to yourself. Like if you were okay with living alone if she moved in with me. You and her are such good friends, I didn’t want to step on any toes.”

“Oh my God, go for it!” You exclaimed. “That’s such a great step, I’m really happy for you guys. And I have no issue with staying in a dorm by myself. It’ll be weird to get used to not dealing with her snoring at night but I’ll get over it. Plus, some privacy may be nice  before I'm bunking on whatever starship.”

Adia looked relieved. “Thank you. It’s just that when you all graduate and get assigned in April she’ll start getting sent away. She hasn’t applied to the Enterprise, so no five year mission, but I just feel like the months apart will be way easier if we’ve had time together beforehand.”

“That makes perfect sense,” you nodded. “Seriously, Adia, I am fine with this. You should ask her tonight, the atmosphere is so perfect and romantic!”

“I will,” she smiled. “Thank you.”

“It’s nothing you need to thank me for, seriously.”

You had already reached the burger stall, but hadn’t gone up to the counter while Adia was talking. Now that she was finished, you stepped forward and placed and order. You chatted about other things as you waited, the weather, the Academy, her job. However you weren't waiting long. The food was in your hands in under three minutes, steaming in the cold December night. You took a bite of it, and it burned your tongue but you didn’t care. Chewing happily, you could feel your face stretched in a beaming smile.

“Good?” Adia chuckled.

“Mmm hmmm,” you grunted, cheeks full with food and held the burger out to offer a bit.

“I’m okay, thanks.” She waved you off with a laugh.

You made your way back to the group. Karim, obviously noticing Adia’s lack of a burger, raised on inquisitive eyebrow but you just smiled at her.

“Hey guys, want to go on the ferris wheel?” Adia asked.

You immediately agreed, knowing what she was up to. The others gazed up at it, thinking it over.

“We’d have to all split into twos.” Amira’s boyfriend, Jack, remarked.

“Yeah, that’s no stress,” you replied. “Amira and Jack, Karim and Adia, and the two singles.” You playfully bumped Logan with your arm.

“Yeah, I don’t mind,” your friend responded, nudging you back.

With everyone agreeing, you queued for the ferris wheel. Adia and Karim got on first, you and Logan next, and you watched from above as Amira and Jack boarded the bench beneath you. You were still munching on your burger as the ferris wheel slowly rose in the sky, and stopped. Rose and stopped. Rose and stopped. You were happy to just eat in comfortable silence, swinging your feet off of the platform and gazing down at the ground below. 

You were in your favourite pair of black boots. They hid the fluff socks you were wearing underneath, and your feet were lovely and toasty warm. The rest of your body was somewhat cold, and you shivered. Noticing your tremble, Logan moved closer to you, slinging an arm around your shoulder to try provide more body warmth. You smiled at him in thanks, and he briefly returned it before looking out over the view again. 

Down below, you spotted McCoy again. This time you could only see the top of his head, and not his face. He was talking with Kirk, who you recognised immediately by the Santa hat

“So..?” Logan said, his voice filling the air.

“So?” you echoed, glancing at him.

“Everyone’s been getting in relationships. Even you dated Dickhead David. I’ve basically been single since we got here.”

“There’s nothing wrong with that,” you shrugged. “You just haven’t found the right person.”

“I don’t know if I ever will,” Logan sighed, leaning back. 

He seemed genuinely upset. You knew he had wanted someone for a while and it just hadn't happened. No one in particular, just someone. Chewing your burger, you regarded him sadly, unsure what to say to make it better. Figuring it was better than silence, you decided to make light of it.

“You know, if I knew you were going to have an existential crisis I wouldn’t have come up here with you," you joked, elbowing him once more with a cheeky smirk.

That made him laugh, breaking him out of his somber mood. “You know, you can be an ass sometimes.”

His words seemed angry, but his tone was not and there with some mirth in his eyes when he next looked at you. You scooted even closer and rested your head on his shoulder. He didn’t move away, but just leaned his head back and onto yours, watching the world around him. While one would expect the situation to have some sort of romantic tone, it did not. Neither you or Logan liked each other in that way. It was simply two friends sitting on a ferris wheel, talking about life. You wouldn't change your relationship with him for anything.

Suddenly, the ferris wheel jerked again as it started moving. You jolted forward in surprise, and even though there was indeed a bar present to hold you in place on your seat your hands still nervously shot out to grab at it The half-eaten burger flew from your hands and you let out a yelp of dismay as it fell, raining tomato ketchup and caramelized onions as it disappeared from view. There was an angry shout from below and both you and Logan leaned forward to peer over the railing. When you saw the scene below you, your mouth gaped open in horror. 

Leonard _freaking_ McCoy stood below, splodges of ketchup and strings of onion hanging off of his shoulders and hair, and the burger bun lay on the ground beside him in pieces. You could see Kirk in stitches of laughter beside him, and the sound floated up to reach you all the way above them. Your hands flew to your mouth in shock and horror, and you rocketed back just as he glared up to try spy who the culprit was. Luckily for you, there were so many benches above him it didn’t narrow it down for him. Logan’s shoulders were shaking as he turned around to you.

“Oh my God,” he spluttered, unable to say anything else. “Oh my God!”

“Oh my God,” you repeated in a whisper. “I just covered the CMO of the Enterprise in ketchup and onions.”

Logan’s body shook as he laughed. You risked another peek over the edge of the bannister. McCoy was gone from below, though the burger and most of his friend group still remained. From your vantage point high above, you were able to search through the stalls to find him. He was heading for the exit, Kirk tailing after him. The captain’s voice distantly reached you and you knew he was still laughing at his friend. McCoy rounded on him, looking livid. Kirk still didn’t stop cackling. Logan either, for that matter.

“That was the best thing I’ve ever seen,” he guffawed. “I can’t believe that that just happened.”

You leaned back, threw your arm over your eyes and groaned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WHEN WILL THEY MEET?!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Omg I hit post too soon and didn't write a note...  
> Anyhow, HAPPY HOLIDAYS! I hope everyone's well! Exams and all are out of the way (thank f@*k), and now onto work and the Christmas sales! I am sorry for any mistakes, I tried to edit this but in all honesty I have had a few G&Ts so there may well be errors that I made while editing. I hope you guys are having an AMAZING December!
> 
> Much love xxx

Chapter Six - Leonard

He could not believe that Kirk had actually gotten him to do this. Kirk had gotten him to do many things before, but nothing quite as embarrassing as this. Probably what frustrated him the most was the fact that Kirk had gotten him to agree to this even after laughing whenever he saw Leonard for three days straight after they went to the Christmas market. It also turned out that Kirk had also snapped a photo of Leonard covered in caramelised onions and ketchup, which he then had printed and framed. He had joyfully informed Leonard that he planned to keep it on his bedside table to put him in a good mood every morning. Being the subject of constant ridicule only infuriated the doctor, and kept a permanent metaphorical storm-cloud above his head. The scowl he wore every day had people scatter in front of him, doctors, nurses and patients alike.

However, Jim Kirk had a way of making Leonard do things he didn’t want to, which was why he was current at the local shopping mall. At an ice rink. On a double date. _Dammit._

Leonard huffed as he strapped his skates onto his feet, a scowl plastered onto his face. When he glanced up he spied that Kirk was already wobbling towards the entrance, hurrying after the girl he was currently seeing. Leonard was pretty sure it was a different girl than the one who’s party he had been at… But he wasn’t entirely sure. There had been a fair few of them on the go at the one time, so he wasn't exactly sure. To be honest, he was never exactly sure. He was a busy man, too busy than to keep track of the numerous girls Jim was seeing at once. Shaking his head in exasperation, he looked upwards again.

The other girl, his _date_ , watched him with a frown, waiting for him to say something. He had been sighing and grunting a lot, but he was aware that he hadn't said two actual words yet. He felt it wasn't exactly his fault, however.

D _ammit, he hated double dates._ And Jim knew that.

They were always just so... awkward. Even if he was keen, the pressure from the other couple to hit it off was always too much.

He was not interested in this girl. She seemed nice and she was indeed cute, but she was certainly not Leonard's type. She barely spoke, not that Leonard really minded that too much, but it would have made the introduction a bit easier. She’d just squeaked at him, he wasn’t even sure that she had actually said her name. It was a bit late to ask now, however, so he just had to avoid a scenario where he ever had to mention her by name.

After all, it wasn't like he talked too much either.

“Ready?” He asked, standing up.

His date just nodded and also rose. She seemed a bit more sure of herself on skates than he did. He nodded at her, and she at him, and then together, they wobbled towards the ice-rink. She then put her hand on his arm to keep her balance, and he let her keep it there. He could be rude, but not as far to shove her off him. They made it to the entrance without anyone falling, something he was glad of. Kirk was already leaning on the bannister, flirting with his date. They seemed to be having a good time at least.

The ice rink was on the other side of the bannister, already filled with people. He could hear children laughing and people shouting as they zipped around, skidded, and fell. Attending robots scurried to and fro, picking up those who had taken a tumble. Leonard and his group had to wait for another 10 minutes until the session before finished up and they could go out onto the ice, and then Leonard could maybe zoom off his own a bit. 

It may be a shock but despite being from Georgia, he could indeed ice-skate. At least he was competent enough that there was no risk of him embarrassing himself this time. Unless he did while they were waiting. There was 10 minutes of silence or small talk to (not) look forward to. He wasn’t sure which would be worse. Looking for some conversational inspiration, he glanced around.

A loud shriek drew his attention. He snapped his gaze to its source, and saw a girl with tumbling dark brown hair pitch over and tumble onto the ice. Her fall revealed another girl who had been behind her, standing there with her mittened hands at her mouth in horror. He recognised you in an instant. You looked at your friend in concern and fear, the fur bobble on the top of your hat bouncing slightly as you bent down to peer at her face.

“Amira! Are you okay?!” Your voice was filled with concern.

“Yeah… Yeah, I’m good,” your friend, who he recognised as the one who’d questioned him at the end of lecture, was attempting to struggle to her feet. 

Her skates slipped on the ice as she tried to push herself upright and she flopped back down,  hands stopping her face from smashing into the ice. However, this time her legs shot out, knocking into yours. With a yelp of shock, you went down too, landing on top of her in a tangle of arms and legs.

“Oh my God, you are such a lump,” Amira groaned.

You looked down at her, frowning. “You know you brought this on yourself, right?”

A whirring noise interrupted you as one of the assistance robots zoomed over to you both. It helped you to your feet and Leonard watched you thank it, even though it was a robot. Amira also used its mechanical arm to drag itself up.

“You said you were good at ice-skating!” You berated your friend.

“Well… I didn’t exactly say ‘good.’”

“Well I’m not good,” you told her, “so here we are, two dopes on ice.”

"Could be the name of a musical," your friend replied.

It drew a laugh from you, short but cheerful.

“Bones!” Kirk hissed. “Isn’t that the girl from the bar?”

Jim's elbow dug sharply into his side, and Leonard tried not to wince.

“Yep, Jim, it is,” McCoy replied emotionlessly, not wanting to give the captain any reaction/ammunition to use against him.

Another cry for the ice rink drew his attention back, and he watched as the bottom of your skate narrowly missed a child’s neck as you slipped and your leg flew into the air. The child’s mother snatched it away in horror, terrified at the almost-decapitation.

“I am so sorry!” you shrieked, skidding past and into the railing, right in-front of Kirk.

Your head almost smacked into his, and he threw himself back just in time.

“Woah!” he yelled, as the girl beside him gasped in annoyance and indignation.

You looked up and your eyes locked with Jim. They widened in shock and a look akin to horror crossed your face.

“Captain Kirk!” you exclaimed.

Kirk laughed at the expression on your face. Leonard did not miss the way that Jim looked at you, the sudden approval in his eyes. In your knitted pale pink bobble hat, matching gloves and scarf and grey coat, you looked extremely cute. The girl with him definitely saw the interest reflected in his eyes and glared at you with venom in her own. 

Leonard couldn’t blame her for that, her date was showing interest in another girl. You seemed oblivious to the glare being directed your way, too embarrassed to notice anything else.

“I am so sorry,” you said again. 

Leonard wondered how many times you’d actually said that since you got on the rink. He figured it was definitely more than the two times he had heard you say it.

“It’s okay,” Jim chuckled, blue eyes gleaming.

You were about to say something else, but your friend called out for you. You turned back to see her attempting to wobble her way over.

“Help. Me,” she pleaded.

“Sorry sir, gotta blast!” You staggered away, flailing your way over to your friend.

Jim turned back to Leonard, and winked. Leonard just rolled his eyes and shook his head. Jim was insufferable with women. He thought he may have put it on hold, pining after Carol Marcus (who had gone back to spend time with her family and recover from the ordeal with her father) but that was not the case. As previously seen, Kirk had most certainly not been waiting around.

“Bones?” Jim’s smile faded a bit. “...You alright?”

“Yup,” Leonard said rather curtly, “no reason to not be.”

“FIVE MORE MINUTES.” The announcement rang out loudly.

Leonard watched you turn to your friend and sigh. “It’ll probably take us that long to get out.”

The exit was only around seven metres away.

“Shall we?” Your friend shrugged in defeat.

“We shall.”

Gripping each other’s forearms, you began to toddle towards the exit. All of a sudden you stumbled forward, but Amira managed to pull you back before you landed flat on your face. You stood upright, but too quickly and leaned back too far. Your arms wind-milled and Amira lost her grip on your jacket. Leonard watched you fly backwards, landing on your butt on the ground. The railing now blocked his view of you, but he heard a load groan.

“I… I think I broke my ass.”

“Can you get up?”

“I’m just gonna crawl. It’s less embarrassing at this rate.”

“Oh my God.”

The assistance robot zoomed over again. You must have waved it away or something, as it didn’t stoop to help you up. Amira stood beside it, staring disbelievingly at the ground. Her eyes were following what was most likely you, crawling across the floor.

“I can’t believe you’re doing this,” Amira groaned. “Why are you so embarrassing?”

“Shut up.”

Amira slowly shuffled past, no doubt following behind you.  As she went by Leonard moved closer to the rail and looked down. What he saw made him snort in disbelief (and a tiny bit of amusement). You were on your hands and knees, dragging yourself across the icy ground. He figured you were probably going just as quick as before, and while this way was much more embarrassing you were probably safer.

“Do you… um… need some help?” Leonard found himself calling put to the back of your head.

Amira glanced up and started when she recognised him, but didn’t say anything. You didn’t even look around, just continued to slowly crawl towards the exit.

“No, I’m doing fine, thanks!”

“Yeah. It sure looks it,” Leonard responded with a smirk.

“Leave me aloooooone,” you groaned, continuing to crawl.

You reached the little gate just before the bell rang, making it out of the rink just before everyone else started walking towards the exit. You stood up, rubbing your hands together and brushing bits of frost off your clothes. Amira wobbled out, gripping the railing. She then stepped up beside you and took hold of your arm, saying something directly into your ear. Leonard could have sworn she was looking right at him. 

Your head began to turn but at that moments the crowd pushed out around you and Leonard lost sight of you. He craned his neck and stared for a few more moments, but the girl he was with, the one who he had pretty much forgotten existed, tugged on his arm and asked if he wanted to go out onto the ice.

“Yeah, be out in a second,” he grunted and turned back.

Jim beckoned to Leonard’s date, and she went and looped her arm into his free one. Her friend was clutching his other arm. The three of them headed out carefully onto the ice, but Leonard stayed where he was. The crowd had thinned out, but when he looked back, figuring that this time he may as well go up to you, you were gone.

 

 


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys, sorry for the update gap! I have fifteen chapters of this written, but my free time is diminishing so I'm trying to spread out my updates.
> 
> As usual, thank you for all the support! Love you all, and hope you're having an excellent day!

**Chapter Seven - You**

“Um… Ticket for one,” you said awkwardly. “And a medium popcorn and a slushie. The blue one.”

Your shoulders were hunched and your hands were shoved in your pockets. You kept your eyes downcast, fixed on the counter as the cashier went off to prep your order. You had never gone to the cinema alone before. You were fine with the idea of going alone when Karim cancelled, but now that you were actually there you felt a bit awkward surrounded by all the couples and groups. Being so aware of being alone kind of reminded you that your (now ex-)boyfriend had cheated on you with his ex-(now not ’ex’)girlfriend and you didn’t have someone to always go to the movies with anymore.

However, by now it was too late. You’d just have to soldier through. You were a grown, carefree woman, who didn’t give a damn if she was by herself. Or so you told yourself.

Taking your food and paying, you headed towards the selected cinema screen. You walked away from the queue, and right past Leonard, who would have noticed you if you hadn’t had had the popcorn bag up to your face so you could eat as you walked. You were so intent of munching on the popcorn with no hands and not tripping that you didn’t see him either. You made your way to the screen and as you were there in plenty of time the lights were still on so you easily found your seat.

You sat down with ten minutes to spare, and all the other movie-goers spilled in. There weren’t too many going to this particular movie. This was probably because it was a Wednesday afternoon, so not peak hours anyways. You had taken a break from your studying, and tried to go at a time when you knew most people were busy. You’d figured you being on your own may not have stuck out that much.

You were lazily sucking on the straw of your slushie and people-watching when he came in. Immediately you sat a bit straighter. A few pieces of popcorn spilled as you tried to get a look on at one specific newcomer, as by now that shock of black hair and 6ft-something frame was becoming pretty familiar to you.

_No fucking way._

Leonard McCoy walked into the cinema, seemingly on his own.

_Jesus Christ, this was getting a bit excessive._

You wondered where he was sitting? Was he also here alone? By chance would his seat be beside yours?

That would be kind of funny after all these occasions of seeing him out, the idea that he would just end up sitting beside you one random day in the cinema. Amira would most definitely get a kick out of it.

All those thoughts were quelled when he halted and was joined by a woman who was just walking in the door. She had obviously opened the door for him seeing as he was carrying all of their stuff. They were chatting vigorously and seemed to be getting on like a house on fire. Your excitement deflated a bit but you shrugged it off easily enough.

_Good for him. He deserved some happiness after his divorce._

You relaxed back once more, watching them find their seats a few rows in-front of your own. Since there was nothing else to do, you watched them. You couldn’t really tell if they were actually on a date or if they were just friends, but you had rarely seen him smile as much before. She settled down first, taking off her jacket and sitting back on the seat. Leonard handed her their food before shrugging out of his own coat as well, laying it down and then sitting also. They shifted positions, with her handing him back some of the food that must have been his.

It was around then that the lights around you dimmed and the theatre darkened. The holographic screen flickered in-front before the advertisements started playing. You took another handful of popcorn and hoped the movie would be decent, that’d teach the others for not wanting to go.

You took out your phone and texted Logan one final time, asking how his date went, before turning down the volume and putting it back into your pocket. You watched the trailers half-heartedly, cringing a bit every-time one came on for a romance movie. Eventually the movie started and you forgot about being alone and getting cheated on as it started playing.

You were right not to miss out on seeing it.

McCoy’s friend/date seemed to be enjoying it too, judging by how her attention was rapt on the screen as she threw piece after piece of popcorn into her mouth, all the while watching intently. McCoy, on the other hand, seemed to be asleep. His head tilted back so you could kind of see his face. Just to be sure you pulled your legs under you on the seat and slowly boosted yourself up into the air, neck craned as you peered intently.

Yup, he was definitely asleep. You could see his closed eyelids from back here. You could also see something glistening at the side of his mouth, and you were 99.99% sure that it was drool.

You snorted in amusement and settle back down. You wondered if he just found the movie boring or if he was after working a night-shift or something. Then you wondered why you wondered so much about a man you’d never even met.

The woman had not seemed to notice at all, and you figured he’d wake up soon. It was an action movie so some type of explosion was bound to jolt him out of his slumber.

Nope.

It actually became more amusing to watch McCoy than the movie. Every time there was a loud bang or a yell your eyes would immediately snap to him to see if it had woken him up. Nothing did. Another hour and a half passed and the movie began to wind down. The ending was in sight and McCoy still had not woken up. The woman hadn’t noticed either, which made you wonder if they were on a date. Surely she’d be more interested in him and would have copped by now if it _was_ a date?

But you weren’t sure.

The credits began rolling and the lights came on. She immediately turned to her get her bag, and said something to McCoy without looking at him. He didn’t answer and she twisted to see why he wasn’t responding when she lost her grip on her bag and dropped it. It landed upside-down, its contents spilling everywhere. She swore and started picking them up. McCoy slept on.

You felt bad. If it was a date he had really fucked it up for himself. You’d heard that his divorce had been nasty, and you thought it would be nice if he was able to find someone again. That’s why you did what you did next.

You had no popcorn left, but you did have some kernels left in the bottom of the cardboard box. Quickly gathering them in the palm of your hand, you rose to your feet and launched them at McCoy, hard. You were a weapon’s expert, and so had good aim. They smacked into the back of his head and he woke up with a start. His head swivelled as he looked around widely before noticing the woman picking things up from the ground. Immediately he got down onto his knees and began to help her gather her stuff.

You smirked to yourself, and then reached down to gather your jacket into your arms. You left your seat and began to walk down the aisle, sneaking a look at them as you passed. The woman was asking McCoy what he thought of parts of the movie, parts you knew he had been asleep for. He was answering them somewhat hesitantly, pretending he had been awake. You pressed a hand to your mouth to stifle a giggle and kept walking.

You left the cinema and stepped down onto the street. It was beginning to drizzle. You walked up to your motorbike, a vintage beauty that still ran like a dream, which was parked at the side of the street. You took your helmet out from under the seat, dusting it off slightly. Strapping it to your head, you swung your leg over the saddle and sat on the bike. You twisted the key and the engine started with a loud growl. You glanced back at the cinema doors once more.

McCoy and the woman came out, arm in arm. They stopped and looked into each-other’s eyes for a second, before he leaned forward and kissed her. You smiled and shook your head.

“Eat your heart out, Cupid,” you joked to yourself, before twisting the acceleration and zooming away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's so short, I ran out of ideas when writing this but needed another chapter from the reader's perspective!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapters should get longer after they properly meet, which I will say is very soon indeed! Thanks once more for all the support on the fic (and the patience), you guys are the best!  
> Also mega shoutout to texting_fangirl for reaching out to me via Tumblr for great chats and gushing about Fringe! (Can you find the Fringe quote in this? I won't blame you if you can't, it's hard enough to see! But I am curious!) P.S. You should all go check out her Bones fic too bc it's amazing and she is too!

**Chapter Eight - Leonard**

It was Valentine’s day. Leonard hated Valentine’s day. Yeah, he mainly hated it because he was alone, he had recently dumped the woman he liked because he didn’t think she would be able for a long distance relationship with a Starfleet officer… And he hated Valentine’s day because it reminded him of times past with his ex-wife.

However, it was also just an exasperating day. It was all down to _couples_. Couples making out inches from your face on the air shuttles, couples taking up the whole sidewalk as they walked down the street holding hands, couples being everywhere, ruining everything. You could never go anywhere or do anything on Valentine’s day as everything was either way too crowded or completely booked up.

Luckily, he had something to do other than sit at home and mope. The Academy hospital’s head doctor had a wife rattled from his prolonged work hours and absences from home, and had nagged the doctor into taking the night off. Leonard has been rostered in to cover him. He didn’t mind, although he wasn’t exactly looking forward to dealing with all the sex related injuries tonight.

It was around 10:30pm at night when it happened. There hadn’t been any serious injuries and everyone was settling in for any easy enough night. Everyone except for Leonard, that was, who knew just how quickly situations could change. He was filling out a form on his PADD when an incoming alert came over the intercom. The hospital had just received a call about a patient being rushed in with broken bones, internal bleeding and definite head trauma. It was said to be the result of a collision between a motorbike and a truck, both ground vehicles. Leonard, being the most senior doctor on duty began to shout orders as they prepared for the patient’s arrival in a few minutes. Assembling a team of nurses and other doctors he led them down the corridor and to the back door where the patient was to arrive.

A blaring siren filled the air and the small white and red hovercraft zipped into view, making a beeline for the hospital. It got there in mere seconds and quickly lowered itself onto the ground. Smoke pumped out of its exhaust pipes, and he could see people milling about inside. There was a split second where no one moved before the doors at the back of the vehicle burst open and paramedics streamed out, pulling a trolley with someone strapped onto it with them.

Leonard rushed forward, tricorder in hand, barking orders. His shoulder knocked into a paramedic, sending him staggering out of the way. He didn’t bother to apologise. He had bigger issues at hand. He looked down, and felt his blood turn ice-cold inside his veins. The person on the trolley lay still, eyes closed. Even when swollen and cut, streaked in drying and new blood, McCoy recognised your face. He almost dropped the tricorder in shock but managed to hold on. The world tilted around him, and he had to draw a ragged breath.

“Fractured skull, brain trauma, broken rib, pierced lung, broken leg.” Someone was reading results off to him. “Heavy internal bleeding.”

The words echoed weirdly inside his head, over and over again. For a moment he just stood there, feeling the world fall away. _No, the girl with the cardboard crown could not be dying right here in front of him._

“We’re losing her! Dr McCoy, we need to move!” The cry snapped him back to reality.

Shouting at the team around him, McCoy grabbed a needle off of a nurse as they brought you into the closest operating theatre. The most serious issue was the brain trauma. Quickly locating the fracture at the back of your head, he injected the liquid in the middle of the crack, with the intent of it dripping down to your brain. It was an anti-inflammatory agent that would reduce brain swelling. You must have been wearing a helmet, seeing as your head hadn’t been splattered all over the side-walk like an egg. There would have been no saving that.

“What happened?” He snapped at one of the nurses who was flicking quickly through the accident report.

The nurses started cutting away your clothes. The pierced lung needed quick attention also.

“Idiot in the truck ran a red light. It’s a wonder she’s still alive.”

 _So you were the motorcyclist._ He stared at you. It was a complete miracle you had make it this far. You were indeed a fighter.

“She’s still slipping,” another nurse called again, desperately holding an oxygen mask to your face. “I don’t know what else we can do.”

Leonard’s tricorder showed your vital signs were still dropping.

_No._

It was at this moment one of the paramedics followed them into the room, a black backpack in one hand and an identification card in the other. “I have her ID, if someone here is available to get through to her emergency contact.”

One of the nurses who had been prepping the bed prior to arrival rushed over to take it. In doing so, she accidentally knocked the bag out of his hand. It flew to the floor, a book spilling out of it. Leonard recognised his battered copy of ‘the Count of Monte Cristo’ instantaneously. As the book landed, a piece of paper floated out from the inside of the book and landed at his feet.

A handwritten note. Eyes flashing across the paper, the words imprinted over his mind in a split second.

_‘You left this in the library, I’ve been meaning to return it to you for ages. I guess part of me wanted to keep it.’_

He looked back at you, mouth open in shock. Leonard McCoy was not someone who believed in fate or destiny, but seeing this felt like too much of a sign. Something about seeing the book made up his mind. No, he could not let you die. There was something he could do, and no matter how much trouble he would get into for it, Leonard found he was going to do it. He was a doctor after all. He was meant to save lives.

“Nurse!” He shouted at the one reading the report, causing her to drop it in shock. “Get my briefcase from my station.”

She looked confused.

“Briefcase! Now!” Leonard roared, slamming his fist down on the tray beside him.

Frightened, she scurried off. The other doctors and nurses worked over you in a blur around him, but with nothing else to do he could only focus on your face. Bending down, he quietly whispered in your ear, “you’re gonna be fine. Ya hear me? You’re gonna be fine.”

The nurse came back in carrying a brown leather briefcase. Hurriedly unbuttoning the clasps, Leonard ripped the bag open and began to dig through it. His fingers closed around the cool cylinder vial and he pulled it out. Removing the lid, he stared into the interior of the metal container. His fingers went in, retrieving the vial of serum he had synthesized from Khan’s blood all  those months ago.

He’d carried it with him since the day they had stopped the maniac. He hadn’t needed to use all of the blood he had taken on Jim, and while he had given most to the Federation to study he had secretly kept one vial for himself. He couldn’t say what made him do this. He knew it broke so many rules. He had only that he felt he may need it one day.

“Pass me a syringe,” he grunted.

One was passed, and he looked the vial into the slot in the middle. He didn’t intend to use all of it. Kirk had needed a lot more because he was already dead. Your heart, weak as it was, was still beating. _You little fighter._ He prayed that it would work.

Stabbing it down in one hard motion, he injected it into your chest, over where your heart would be. He watched the vial drain, and even thought he was pretty sure it would heal you he still found himself praying that it would work. It wasn’t like he had done this often, only once before. He’d never tried it on a live person.

He looked up, eyes focused on the monitor beside you. Your vitals stayed dangerously low and for a second he found himself despairing. A long whine filled the room as the vitals dipped and he felt his stomach plummet. You stopped breathing. Leonard felt all the air leave his lungs, as if he had been punched.

_Oh God, what had he done._

For a split second, the damn whine was in the only sound in the silent room. A nurse nervously cleared her throat.

“Time of death, 10:41pm.”

And then your chest heaved as you inhaled loudly, air rasping in your throat. You nearly convulsed on the bed, almost giving Leonard a heart attack. The monitor started beeping again as your own heart rate picked up and Leonard let out a sigh of relief, slumping against the bed slightly. He noticed that he was sweating, and something felt clammy in his hand. It was then he realised that he had been gripping your hand tightly as he had waited. Sheepishly and hoping that no one else saw, he let go and straightened up.

“Dr McCoy…” A nurse stepped forward. “What was that?”

He hesitated. He knew was going to be in a lot of trouble. “I’m not at liberty to discuss this with anyone. As your superior officer, I order that for the moment no information on what just occurred should leave this room. Await further instruction from your commanding officers. I will go see the head of the department now, if you’ll excuse me.”

Leonard stood up straight, with his head high and made for the door. His boots thudded heavily on the ground. Upon reaching the threshold he hesitated, turning back to look at your unconscious form. Slowly, he made his way back over to your bedside, and looked down at you. Your cuts were healing already, but you were still covered in your own blood. He reached out and brushed a strand of hair away from your eyes.

“Keep watching her,” he grunted. “She should be okay, but all the same. And clean her up before her family gets here. No one needs to see her like this.”

The nurses nodded.

Leonard left the hospital room. He really hoped it wasn’t for the last time.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uploading two chapter right now as this one is super short, and even I feel that the slow burn is getting too much! Tryna speed things up here!

Chapter Nine - You

The first week of recovery you phased in and out of consciousness. You remembered your parents and your siblings crowded around the bed. Your friends were there too; Amira, Logan, Karim and some others. You hadn’t been able to stay awake for more than a few minutes though, and so hadn’t gotten to speak with them. It was just chance that they always came around when you were unconscious.

For your first few days of actual consciousness it was mainly your family around you. They stayed for a week and half but then neither your dad or your siblings could get longer off work, and your mom had to go back to take care of your sick grandmother. You were visibly getting better and so you told them repeatedly to go. Eventually they agreed. But still, you were never entirely alone.

Judging by the collection of balloons, cards and teddies at the end of the bed, a lot of people had dropped by. Even a few of your teachers came at some point. And… Then there was that dream. You were calling it a dream because unlike the other times you had no one able to confirm or deny that it happened.

Everything was blurry and super bright, and your mind was fuzzy. The world had a weird, piercing quality to it that kind of hurt your head. In the dream, Leonard McCoy was sitting by your bed. He wasn’t looking at you though, rather the open book on his lap. His lips moved but there was ringing in your ears and you couldn’t actually hear what he was saying at first.

You gazed at him through barely open lids. He didn’t notice that you were conscious, just continued looking at the book on his lap as his mouth moved. You struggled to understand what he was saying. After a few minutes the ear ringing slowly receded. Quietly at first, you began to be able to make out the occassional word. A few more minutes and you could dimly hear him reading softly.

The book was familiar, but you couldn’t quite place it right away. A bit longer of intense listening, and you finally understood. The Count of Monte Cristo.

Leonard McCoy was sitting beside your bed reading you the Count of Monte Cristo.

You recognised the slightly yellowed pages and got a tiny glimpse of the cover. You were pretty sure it was his copy. You were about 99.99% sure that this was most definitely a dream. There was no comprehensible reason why McCoy would sit at your bedside reading to you, and even if he had one, where would he have got his book from? All the times you had seen him you hadn’t had it on your person to give it back.

It was a nice enough dream, all the same. His voice was strong and deep, but hushed. Kind of comforting. His southern accent sounded nice. Settling back down, you began to drift once more. Your eyes felt heavy, and you were so tired. Sleep drew you back in and your eyes closed once more.

Next time you woke up, you registered a hand in yours. Blinking, you opened your eyes and looked to your right, to where whoever was holding your hand sat. Amira was on the chair beside you. She had been visibly crying, you could see tears tracking down her cheeks. Logan stood beside her at the window, looking out into the evening sky. His eyes were looking a bit red-rimmed too. The door opened, and Karim came in with a tray of coffees. She started when she saw you awake, and it was lucky that the coffees had lids on them or she would have spilled them onto her hands.

“Hey,” you smiled. Your voice was a bit raspy from lack of use.

“You’re awake!” Logan barked, flying towards you.

“Yeah, have I been out long?”

“We’ve been here for seven hours.” Amira told you in a voice choked with tears. “I’m so glad you’re awake.”

“They got the guy that hit you,” Logan growled. “The fucking asshole. I wish I’d found him first.”

“Yeah, my parents told me… I wanted to ask about that. My family wouldn’t really tell me much. I heard a few of the nurses when they thought I was asleep mention that I got hit by a truck? There is no way that’s possible, though. I’m fine. I couldn’t be fine if… I-I don’t remember anything.”

Your friends shared an uncomfortable look. Karim took a deep breath, and spoke.

“We’re not too clear on it either, in all honesty. We heard that you got hit by a truck, and that you very nearly died. You came in really banged up apparently. You started to go further downhill, and then Dr McCoy stepped in.”

“McCoy?” You felt a bit more alert, and confused.

“Maybe hold off on that restraining order,” Amira joked even though her eyes were all watery. “He saved your life.”

“How?”

“No one is clear on that either, and no one can ask him to find out. He was placed on disciplinary leave. He hasn’t been back and no one has seen him.”

“Is it because of me?”

“Rumour is, yes. Whatever he did caused a lot of controversy higher up.”

You shook your head, all confused. “I’m confused. Is there anything I can do, any way to reach out to him?”

“Not that I know of,” Karim shrugged.

“This was left for you, though.” Amira picked something up off the bedside table beside her and passed it to you.

It was Dr McCoy’s copy of ‘the Count of Monte Cristo.’ You reached out it, arms trembling a bit, and took it from her. Leafing through the pages you felt a smile beginning to grow on your face. As you flicked through it, you dislodged a piece of paper put inside. It fell onto your lap. You picked it up and turned it over. The writing was kind of hard to decipher, but after a few seconds of intense scrutiny you managed to figure out what it said.

‘Hang onto it, it’ll keep you entertained during your recovery. LM.’

 


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten - Leonard

After much deliberation, they let him off the hook. Mostly this was because of Jim and a lot of his friends in high positions, and not too much to do with Leonard’s charming personality and admittance of wrong doing. That was a joke. Leonard did not admit he was wrong. That was probably what caused all of the deliberation.

Whatever the trouble, it was worth it when Leonard saw you the following month. You were in the park, walking a dog. He didn’t know you had a dog. He later found out you didn’t, but volunteered at the animal sanctuary where you could to walk the pups. It was a warm day for mid-March, and you had a smoothie in the hand not holding the lead. A light jacket sat on your shoulders and sun glasses perched on top of your head. You had headphones in as you strolled along down the path.

He thought about going to say hi to you, but he had a meeting to get to with a superior, and after the whole serum incident he couldn’t afford to piss anyone off by being late. So he continued to walk, keeping an eye on you from the other side of the park. You had sat on a bench, and the dog sat in front of you. You were talking to it, waving your hands about as you spoke. The dog seemed to be listening intensely. You paused, and looked at the dog as if for confirmation. The dog threw its head back and gave a loud bark. This caused you to laugh, shaking your head as you did. Your hand reached out and you began to pat the dog’s head. 

As he turned a corner, trees and bushes cut off his vision of you. He wasn’t too worried about not going up to you that time. By the way that you had kept popping up in his life he was pretty sure he would see you again soon. 

Sure enough, he saw you fleetingly a number of times after. He glimpsed you as you walked in a crowd of your friends to class, a stack of books under your arm. He saw you inside a coffee shop as he walked past it, waiting in line while looking somewhat impatient. He watched through the glass window on the upper floor of the library as you sat down on the lower floor preparing for the final exams, sneaking a bite of the slice of pizza you had taken from a box hidden  in your bag when the librarians weren’t looking. 

Leonard found himself wondering if he was stalking you, or if you were stalking him. You appeared constantly everywhere he went. Heck, he even was a monitor in the exam hall as you wrote one of your final tests. He had been asked be an invigilator, and once more still couldn’t really say no after the whole serum fiasco. 

They had put him in for watching the advanced weaponry exam. Not that he would give hints to students anyhow, but it was policy for an invigilator to oversee a different topic to the one that they specialised in. The questions displayed via holograph in the air, Leonard was basically just sitting on a chair twiddling his thumbs and the sounds of moving paper and fabric shifting echoed around the room. 

It was around 15 minutes into the exam that he first noticed you. Your hair was in an untidy ponytail, and he could see rings under your eyes. However, you were working furiously at a rapid pace, and he was pretty sure your body probably contained more caffeine than blood at this particular moment. You hadn’t noticed him, or if you had it did not interfere with your work ability (but you later told him you were so stressed you had purposely not looked around the room in-case you saw anything that would throw you off. 

While he did still watch the room, his eyes were often drawn back to you. He wondered if you knew what he’d done to save you, or even if you knew he had been involved at all. That may not matter anyhow. Just because he had noticed you did not mean you had noticed him. You may not even know who he was. 

He looked at the leather jacket hanging off the back of your seat and wondered if you were still riding that motorbike or if you had given it up in lieu of something safer. The guy who’d hit you was currently serving a few months’ time for breaking traffic laws and inflicting grievous bodily harm.

The exam went on for two hours, and at the end Leonard went around collecting the papers from the row in front of him. This was not your row, however. One of Leonard’s colleagues were in charge of that section. You continued writing until the last second, and the female invigilator had to sharply tell you to stop. 

While waiting for someone to scan their thumb print onto his PADD, Leonard was subtly keeping an eye on you. Your paper had been passed up, and you were sitting down clutching one hand in the other. You were stretching your fingers, your hand obviously cramped from writing so much. The girl sitting in front of you twisted around to say something, and you smiled broadly and gave her the thumbs up.

Leonard took that as confirmation it had gone well. He was glad your library pizza eating risk had paid off. 

When it was announced you could go, you shot up from your seat. Leonard watched you hurry in front of the surging crowd to be one of the first one’s out the door. He figured you had another exam that you were running off to prepare for, and he silently wished you luck.

 

***

 

Leonard did not see you again until graduation three weeks later. Your absence had actually quite irritated him. He got so used to seeing you everywhere, it was annoying for you suddenly to be nowhere to be found. This, and curiosity about how your exams went led Leonard to do something he swore he’d never do. He looked you up. 

Seeing as the ceremony was today the graduate list had been published, and students were in the process of being selected for various ships. He knew your first name, and it wasn’t hard to find your last. As he was checking the list, he couldn’t see anything else except that you had indeed passed your exams and by the end of the day you would be a fully fledged Starfleet member. 

He stared at the screen and suddenly realised he was very unlikely to see you again if you were assigned to any other ship but the Enterprise. Kirk’s campaign to be the one for the five year mission had been successful, and so one week after the graduation ceremony they were expected to be off, exploring space for half a decade. Leonard shuddered to think of what that would be like. 

It was that thought that made him get up from his chair and leave his sunlit office. He walked across the quad towards the ceremonial hall. As he approached he heard the roar of many voices from inside. There was cheering and yelling, and he realised that he was too late and had missed the entire ceremony. As he watched from across the field, the doors to the quad were thrown open. 

One person ran out, always seeming to be in front of the crowd. Or maybe you were in the crowd, but Leonard’s eyes just zeroed in on you anyway. You had your arms raised up and you were laughing with glee. He could see excitement, pride and delight shining on your face. You turned around to face the person scurrying out after you. The guy had the camera raised to his face and was pressing the button rapidly and you grinned at the lens. Leonard found himself wondering if you had a new boyfriend just after graduation. However, when the camera was lowered Leonard saw that the young man holding it shared a lot of your features, and concluded that he must be a brother or a cousin or something. 

A loud shriek rang out as someone sprinted towards you and he recognised your friend who had asked him a question at the end of his guest lecture. You opened your arms and she slammed into you, sending you both staggering. You laughed as you hugged her back. Your tall, dark-haired male friend, the one you called Lorcan or something, jogged towards the two of you as well to get in on the group hug. Your relative raised the camera to his face again and started taking pictures. After you broke away you caught sight of someone in the crowd and waved. Two girls holding hands broke off from the hub around the doors and walked over to join your little group. The one of the pair in the red graduation gown slipped her hand out of her girlfriends, and linked arms with your guy friend. The four of you posed for a photo together, one normal one as you smiled, and then a second one where you posed goofily. 

Leonard watched for a bit longer as a group of adults, undoubtedly parents, came out after you, looking slightly exasperated about how you had sprinted off. A woman, your mother, came over to you. Leonard watched with a smile as she forced you to pose for a serious graduation-type pic. He couldn’t see your expression at the time, but you were grinning widely. Your brother shifted his position, and took a photo of you from a different angle. 

After watching for a bit longer, he realised that he looked pretty creepy, standing half in the shadows underneath a monument and staring at you. Your male friend turned around, and caught sight of Leonard from over your shoulder. He stopped and squinted. Not wanting to see like he was following you around like some obsessed freak, Leonard turned on his heel and walked away. Little did he know Logan hadn’t actually been looking at him, but rather the underpants that some drunken student had stuck to the pole on the structure that Leonard was standing under.

Even if he had seen him, many passer-byers had stopped to watch the ceremony. It was unlikely he’d be spotted. 

If Logan had noticed McCoy, he would have said it to you. That would have led to you excusing yourself from the group and making your way to the doctor. Leonard would have nervously watched you come over. You would have halted in front of him, given him a shy smile, and thanked him for saving your life. He would have told you that you were welcome, and congratulated you on your graduation. You would have said thank you again, and after a moment’s deliberation, you would have asked him if he wanted to join your group for a drink later on. He would have politely refused, and you would have let it go, but the introduction would have been made, and three days later, on the day of your acceptance to the Enterprise, a congratulations card would have come to the mailbox outside your room.

That may have happened in another timeline, but on this one it was not how the meeting went. Leonard left the quad, and you never noticed. Later on you would announce that last photo taken to be your favourite one of just you (because overall the goofy one with your friends you loved the most). Your mom would agree, but complain about the man standing in the photograph’s background, ruining the shot, and crop him out when she put the picture in a frame. However, the original still existed. Leonard would see it one day, recognise his purple shirt, and you would laugh that in your ever first picture together he was just a tiny figure in the background.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hahaha sorry! But hey, two chapters in one day? At least I can be mean AND nice at the same time!
> 
> Once more, thank you for your continued patience, and all the kudos, comments, bookmarks and subscriptions. And don't worry too much, the meeting is coming soon! I promise!


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *sits back and twiddles thumbs*

**Chapter Eleven - You**

You’d done it. You’d been assigned to the Enterprise. Amira and Logan had too, so at least you had most of your close friends. Karim was on the Faringot, and living with Adia now. You would miss her terribly, but wished them the best for the future. It had been a frantic week after graduation. Your assignment had come via email a few days later, and then you were super busy preparing for five years in space. Your parents and family had come to stay in the city, spending time with you before you were off exploring the furthest reaches of the galaxy for five years.

It was the final night before you set off in early hours of the following morning. Your parents had left a few hours ago, tightly hugging you goodbye and your mom openly crying. They told you that they were proud of you, but they’d miss you. You knew you’d miss them too, and sadness and excitement were warring in your head. Amira and Jack were saying goodbye, they were going to try long distance, and Logan had a security team meeting, so you had nothing to do.

You stood in your dorm, looking around the small room that had been your home for the last three years. It looked extremely bare. Your parents had taken most of your belongings back with them as you couldn’t take all of them on the Enterprise. What you were bringing you had in a grey suitcase on the floor. Due to it being a five year mission, you were allowed to bring a bit more supplies than usual.

You had packed all the clothes you would need, and some sentimental pieces. You had a simple glass rectangle that relayed through pictures of your family and friends, an envelope full of cards from your friends and family, and a teddy your parents had bought you. Your PADD sat on your dresser beside your bed. You downloaded a lot of books and movies onto it, even though you knew you could still do that on the ship. Dr McCoy’s copy of ‘the Count of Monte Cristo’ sat on top of the clothes in your unzipped suitcase.

It was 10pm at night, and you knew you weren’t going to be able to sleep. Looking out the window you decided that you’d take a wander through the city. You were safe enough with your combat training, and the way you saw it, it wasn’t like you’d be on Earth for a while come tomorrow. You shrugged on a light black bomber jacket, a pair of jeans and fished your black trainers from your suitcase and slipped them on. Picking up your keys, you headed out the door. It was cool enough for you to actually need the bomber jacket now that it was night.

Even though you were lost in thought, you found yourself wandering in the direction of the bridge. It would be nice to look out over the water a bit and think. Considering the distance, it didn’t seem to take you too long to get there. Or maybe you were just lost in a daze. 

A light breeze was blowing, and you gulped down the crisp air. You wouldn’t experience this for a while again.

Reaching the bridge with no hassle, you stepped on it. You continued until you were near enough the middle, before stopping. Arms folded and resting on the railing in-front of you, you gazed out back over the city. The lights twinkled and it seemed to hub with busy activity. You felt very separate from it, standing there on your own.

You wondered how much would change when you got back, both with the world and with you. You definitely hoped you’d make it back. Captain Kirk seemed to attract danger, but you were okay with that. Maybe it was foolish and stupid, but you wanted to have some excitement in your life. It had been pretty normal up until now. While normal was good sometimes, you didn’t want it to continue that way all the time.

You sighed, and adjusted your position so both your arms were resting on the rail, hands clasped out in-front of you. Moving closer to stare into the water below, your hair fell forward, hanging around your face like a curtain. Dimly you were aware of footsteps approaching but paid them no heed.

“You better not be lean out too far.” A voice drawled from your left. “If you lose your balance and go in, I ain’t a good swimmer. Don't be counting on a rescue.”

A small laugh escaped your lips as you shook your head. You straightened up, turning to face whoever was speaking to you. “I’m alright, just enjoying the scenery. I can take care of mys-” You stopped.

Leonard McCoy stood in-front of you, hands in his pockets and wearing a brown leather jacket with a grey scarf around his neck. He looked cold, and for some reason your mind leapt to the fact that he was from Georgia, and maybe this was colder than he was accustom to. He seemed to start a little as well when he saw you, a look akin to shock coming over his face. For a few seconds the two of you just stared at each other, neither saying anything.

You broke the silence by immediately blurting the first thing that came to mind. "I don’t have your book.”

A small smile tugged at the corners of his lips. “I’m beginnin' to think I’m never gonna get that back.”

“You had your chance,” you joked awkwardly.

“Yeah, I was gonna take a book off a dying girl,” he said gruffly, rolling his eyes.

“Thank you for that,” you responded quietly. “I tried to find an address for you to send a thank-you card. I hope you’re not in too much trouble because of me.”

“Kid, I’m in trouble because of myself.” He snorted, but then softened a bit at the look in your eyes. “You’re welcome though. And it’s all good, I’ve been reinstated. Heading off tomorrow on the five year mission aboard the Enterprise.” (He wasn’t really sure why he felt the need to tell you all that).

“Me too,” you grinned. “Looks like we’re crewmates.”

He opened his mouth as if he was going to say something else (that he was not your crewmate but rather your superior), but seemed to decide not to. He looked like he was searching for something to say, and eventually settled on, “why are you out tonight? It’s late.”

“Couldn’t sleep,” you shrugged. “…And I wanted to spend some more time in the fresh air before I go five years without it. How about you?”

“Same reason,” Leonard nodded. “Space makes me a little… Uneasy.”

“Why did you join Starfleet, then?” You laughed.

A frown appeared on the CMO’s face, and you realised he may think you were teasing him, or being inappropriate. The light breeze tousled his dark hair, and once again you had to admit that, despite the frown he seemed to constantly wear, he was in-fact very handsome.

“Nowhere else for me to go at the time. Had just divorced my ex-wife. Didn’t have any money or a place to crash or anything.”

“Oh…” That revelation had you feeling seriously awkward for joking around. “I’m sorry to hear that. It must have been horrible.”

“Ancient history now.” He shrugged dismissively.

You weren’t sure whether or not he was actually over it, or just acting tough for your benefit. You both stood there, looking awkwardly at each-other, not quite sure what to say.

 _Jeez, if someone this morning had told you that tonight you'd be standing on a bridge, the cool night air surrounding you, and having a kind of deep conversation with Leonard McCoy, you would have laughed in their face_.

“I’m scared,” you blurted.

Immediately you felt embarrassed. You had just told a senior officer that you were afraid of the upcoming mission. You didn’t even know why you said it. You didn’t even know him. It was so inappropriate and-

“Good,” McCoy interrupted your internal babble. “I think you’d be a damn idiot if you weren’t. You’re leaving your family and your home planet for a mission into uncharted territory for half a decade. That’s some terrifying stuff. You’ll be alright, though. You wouldn’t have gotten a position on the Enterprise if they didn’t think that you were up for it. Besides, you’re not wearing a red shirt so you’ll probably make it out alive.”

“Don’t say that,” you winced, thinking of Logan in his red security uniform. “Wait… How do you know I won’t be in a red shirt?”

He shifted and looked slightly uncomfortable. “I was an invigilator when you did your exam. I recognised you.”

You nodded. “That makes sense. Sorry I didn’t look up, I was focusing. Trying not to see anything to throw me off.”

Seeing him definitely would have done so, but you didn't mention that.

There was a stretch of awkward silence. You turned your head slightly, throwing your gaze back to the city so that you wouldn't just be standing there, awkwardly staring at him. This time McCoy was the one who spoke first.

“Dammit, if it makes you feel any better I’m scared too.”

You laughed. “Any advice on what will make me feel better?”

“I usually go for a good, strong whiskey, neat,” he informed you.

“I’m not a whiskey girl.” You gave an apologetic smile.

“You just haven’t tried the right whiskey then.”

“Oh I’ve tried a few. I’ll be honest, a few shots and I’m vomiting and crying in a corner. It’s not pleasant.” You exaggerated a little, but truth be told that’s how it was.

 _Aaaaaand there you go again, being inappropriate with your superior_.

He didn’t seem to mind however, the ghost of a smile played across his stoic face. “Alright, maybe you’re not a whiskey girl. So what do you drink?”

“Wanna go find out?” You retorted with a grin.

This time he did look shocked, and you realised with horror that this could be seen as you making an advancement on him. While you found him attractive, it wasn’t actually what you intended.

“Sorry!” You held your hands up. “I didn’t mean that in, like, a weird way. It’s just that all my friends are busy tonight, and when I’m left alone I start thinking, and then I start _over_ -thinking,” you were starting to babble continually. “... And I guess I could just really use some company right now.” You finished lamely, feeling pretty pathetic.

McCoy stood there with an unreadable expression upon his face, hands still shoved into his jacket pockets. He took a few agonizing seconds to think over your suggestion. You stood in-front of him, shoulders hunched with embarrassment, waiting for him to reject your offer.

He ended up shrugging, and nodding. “Suppose I could use a drink too. Come on then, I know a place near here.”

He set off and you hurried after him, speed walking in-order to keep up with the strides of his long legs. Potentially noting your struggles to keep pace, he slowed his down.

“I didn’t know you rode a motorcycle,” he said suddenly, looking ahead.

You gave him a quizzical look.

“I’d seen you around before the accident,” he clarified. “A few times actually.”

“You saw me beat up my ex,” you chuckled as you remembered McCoy had been there.

“Seems like he deserved it.”

“I’ve seen you around a few times too, you know.”

“Ah, yes, like when you stole my book from me,” he commented dryly.

You gasped in indignation. “I didn’t steal it! You left it in the library and I noticed it when I was going past. It was so well-worn I figured it had some emotional value so I took it to give it back!”

“Easy, kid. I was only teasing,” he smirked.

You shot him an evil eye, but he had his gaze set pointedly forward and did not seem to notice. 'Teasing' definitely didn't seem like something that serious Leonard McCoy did a lot, but you found yourself kind of oddly flattered that he'd joked around with you.

“I was at your lecture on Advanced First Aid,” you informed him.

“Oh, yeah?”

“Very dreary,” you retorted. This actually got at him to look at you with narrowed eyes, his face falling into a scowl. “Easy, kid. I was only teasing,” you finished with a mischievous grin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, there it is. The big meeting! Hopefully you guys liked it! I was tempted to do it at the graduation, but this way they get to hang out right after they meet. I think if they had met and then separated it would have taken them a while to properly hang out.
> 
> Feel free to let me know if you liked it, dis bish had a pretty shit day, so any positivity would be appreciated! Even if you just wanna tell a story about something good that happened to YOU today/any other day!
> 
> P.S. just have to add that you guys are one of the loveliest audiences I have written for. The constant support is really encouraging, and special thanks to those of you who comment so often. I get the warm fuzzies when I see you guys pop up again.  
> Also, that week when I uploaded two chapters, I wasn't expecting people to thank me for that but they did, and it warmed my freaking heart. So thank you, you're all so cute.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys, relatively long time, no see! Hope everyone is keeping well. I'm almost done exams, and I cannot wait. So, first thing's first, THANK YOU FOR OVER 100 KUDOS. You guys are the best, always so lovely and supportive. If I could hug you all, I would. Second of all, I'm renaming the story to "Fate, I Guess," so if you see that show up in your notifications you know it's me/this fic!  
> I kinda took the liberties with Reader's likes/dislikes in this chapter, but I have to give her some form of humanoid personality. If I tried to keep everything general she'd be kinda bland. So sorry if it doesn't work! (but hey, I myself have put up with plenty of fics where Reader character is a whiskey drinker, which is the most not-me drink ever)  
> Gonna skip off now as I have to be up early tomorrow, and it's late!

**Chapter Twelve - Leonard**

It was probably one of the most surreal moments of Leonard’s entire life, sitting in his favourite old bar with the girl he had accidentally stalked for months. And this time she wasn’t sitting at a table across the room with her friends, not noticing him looking at her. This time she was perched on a high barstools, on the opposite side of the little circular table.

It was a quiet place, only four other patrons in. Two men sat alone at the bar, the empty seats in between them making it clear that they were not there together. A girl and a guy with nose piercings and tattoos sat in one of the booths in the corner, talking quietly over a few pints of beer. A female bartender was wiping down the counters, her arms pale against the black of her ripped Metallica t-shirt.

You were looking around curiously, but with no disdain evident on your face. Leonard had seen you out and knew that this was definitely not the place you’d hit up on the regular on a Friday night out.

“I’m gonna feel weird ordering a gin and tonic here,” you chuckled quietly at him, eyes glinting in the dull light.

He let out a small laugh, and he was thankful it did not sound as weirdly nervous as he felt. “Probably best not to. You might get kicked out. You don’t drink whiskey… Bourbon?”

You shook your head. Leonard tried again.

“Beer?” You shook your head once more.

“Do they have ciders?” You enquired.

“Uh, maybe?” That was kind of a strange thing to order?

I’ll go ask.” Leonard watched you hop of the stool. You started over to the bar, then turned back to him. “What do you want?”

He tried to wave you off. You were so much younger than him, and a woman, he should be buying the drinks for you… He wasn’t super old-fashioned, but it felt weird to have you buy him a drink. You, however, were having none of it.

“You saved my life and almost lost your job because of it, the least I can do is buy you a drink. You already told me what you like. Whiskey, neat. I can just ask the bartender what you like, or what is good, and go from there.”

He really couldn’t argue with that. He told what kind of whiskey he liked, not going for his favourite one as it would have been the most expensive. You sauntered up to the bar and started talking to the bartender, who looked at you with interest. Not many new people came around here. You gave your order and then said something else, which caused the bartender to break into a smile. Leonard didn’t actually think he’d seen her smile before, certainly not at him. You seemed to be good with people.

You handed her some cash, and must have told her to keep the change because she didn’t hand you any coins back. She motioned for you to go back to the table and you did, almost skipping as you made your way back. You slid back onto the stool and looked at him with wide eyes.

“She’s says she’ll just be a few minutes.”

Leonard nodded, and then looked back down at the table. He wasn’t really certain what to say to you now that you were here and in-front of him.

“So…” You broke the ice. “Do you come here much? Am I being allowed into the secret haunt of Dr Leonard McCoy?” There was a jokey smile on your face as you waved your hands in-front of you.

He chuckled before replying. “I come here from time to time. It’s… Nice. Quiet. It’s no Café Noir, that’s for sure.” He gave you a pointed look, referencing your birthday party place.

You didn’t seem to cop what his look meant. “Hey! I like it there! My friend’s even had my birthday celebration there!”

Leonard felt a bit awkward saying that he knew that, and he felt getting into the whole ‘buying you a drink’ thing was a bit much, and maybe a bit too weird for this moment. So he left it. He was glad of the interruption when the bartender came over to deposit your drinks on the table. You both thanked her, and then he thanked you.

“To saving my life,” you held your drink in the air.

He leaned forward and clinked his off yours, before watching you take a greedy gulp. He took a sip and enjoyed the taste of the cool liquid travelling down his throat. You smiled at him over the top of your pint glass.

“What?” he asked bemusedly.

You chuckled and then answered. “You’re not nearly as terrifying and grumpy as people say.”

“Because we’re drinking,” he motioned to the glass in his hand with his free one. “You won’t be saying that tomorrow after we head off. Five years on a ship… I’ll come back with nothing but frown lines. More of them.”

“Then don’t frown,” you shrugged. “You never know, it could be fun.”

“Excuse me, kid, but I’ve done a lot more of these missions than you have. I know what it’s like up there.”

“But you’re clouded by bias. Maybe if you weren’t so prejudiced about it you’d enjoy it more,” you took a sip of cider when you finished making your point.

Leonard growled a little. Of course the newly graduated recruit thought she knew more about living in space than he, a seasoned senior Starfleet officer did. Kids these days were just so damn cocky… “We’ll see how your ideas change after a few near death experiences under the command of Jim Kirk.”

“Apart from the incident with Khan, which was an extraordinary event, James T. Kirk has lost very few crew members.”

Leonard felt his frustration grow again as you sat in-front of him. There was a glimmer of amusement in your eyes and he realised that you were enjoying getting a rise out of him.

_Cheeky brat._

Obviously sensing his annoyance, you leaned forward into an exaggerated bow and swept the arm that wasn’t holding a pint outwards. “I concede to your vast and superior experience, sir.”

_Were you… Flirting with him?_

The tone in your voice definitely suggested it, but Leonard wasn’t sure. You were younger than him, and quite pretty. Surely you’d be after boys your own age? And that friend Logan of yours that you always hung around with was quite a good-looking young man… No, you weren’t flirting.

This was backed up with how the next second your face became serious again.

“I think it will be fun,” you said, and Leonard could hear a plaintive, hopeful note in your voice.

He felt kind of bad for being so negative now. It was not what a new recruit needed from their superior. It would have been off-putting for him to have someone act like this around him when he first joined.

“I’m sure it will be,” he found himself saying. “Ignore me.”

_Ignore him?! What kind of considerate, sentimental fool was he turning into?!_ Usually he did not care if he affected others feelings in a bad way. He was tough and grumpy and he knew it and prided himself with it. With you it was somehow different. Maybe it was because he’d seen you laying dying on a stretcher, but he was definitely soft towards you.

He searched for a new topic of conversation. “Any more book references? Since we seem to like the same ones…” He was glad he asked that question by how your face absolutely lit up.

“Um, yeah,” you gushed. “I don’t remember the authors right now, but I can give you a list some-time? I could drop it off to the med-bay? Or even send you a copy because I downloaded a few onto my PADD?”

“The list sounds good,” he raised a hand to stop you from babbling more. “I can research them myself and see if I’m interested.”

You nodded at him, still smiling. “Do you read much?”

“A fair bit,” Leonard told you. “I read instead of watching TV. TV is bad for the eyesight and it melts the brain. Literally. I once saw a case of a bacterial growth that attached itself to a TV and infected whoever touched its surface. Their hands swelled up and their noses got all red and-,” he looked at your somewhat horrified expression and trailed off. “Yeah, I read. It’s a good distraction and it helps me sleep. Do you?”

“Ever since I was a kid. I couldn’t put books down. I’d finish a seven hundred page book in a day. I don’t read as much now anymore… I just haven’t got the time and for a while I couldn’t find anything that gripped me. I’m getting back into it. I’ve downloaded a couple of hundred for the five year mission. I’d prefer to bring actual books but I really don’t have that much space for belongings.”

“What was your favourite book as a kid?” Leonard asked curiously.

You blushed a little and laughed. “Alright, this is such a cringey answer. As a kid I loved the Chronicles of Narnia. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was my favourite one. What about you then?”

“The Lord of the Rings,” Leonard told you honestly. “Don’t ask me to pick one in particular.”

“Yeah, that was definitely a good one. Did you know Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, the guy who wrote Narnia, were good friends?”

“No, I didn’t,” Leonard was amused.

“They were part of some writers’ club or something. Apparently Tolkien got so pissed about Santa Claus showing up in Narnia he almost cut ties with Lewis. And when Tolkien released a new book C.S. Lewis started grumbling that ‘there better not be more fucking elves,’ and that’s what it was.”

“That’s pretty interesting,” Leonard replied truthfully. Though he found it curious not for the reason you thought. _Even your favourite authors were connected. It was getting kinda beyond weird at this stage._ “I’ve seen the Narnia movie. It wasn’t exactly my cup of tea, but it was good enough. Nothing on Lord of the Rings though,” he smirked.

You rolled your eyes. “To be fair, I loved the Rings movies too.”

Leonard nodded, taking another sip of whiskey. “They don’t really make movies like they used to anymore.”

You laughed, but it wasn’t a laugh like you were amused. It was a knowing laugh. Leonard didn’t know exactly what it meant.

“Do modern movies put you to sleep, huh?” You teased. Leonard frowned, trying to figure out what you meant and you waved him off with a chuckle. “I saw you at the cinema a few months ago. You were there with some lady and you fell asleep. I was sitting a few rows behind you.”

It took Leonard a few moments to place the memory. Then he smiled and let out an amused huff. “She almost caught me. I woke up just in time.”

“Guess you could say someone was looking out for you,” you answered and there was something unreadable in your voice, but Leonard did not pry further. “Are you and her, y’know, a thing?” You asked him suddenly, after a brief pause.

“We were, but not for a while…” He trailed off. “Why?”

“Just checking. A girlfriend probably wouldn’t be okay with her boyfriend going out for drinks with a girl he barely knows. I didn’t want to cause a fuss or anything.”

“That’s fair of you.”

“I like to think so.”

Silence fell for a bit and then Leonard cleared his throat. “Are you and your friend, the dark haired guy..?”

You squinted for a minute, trying to figure out what he meant. Then your expression cleared and you laughed. “Logan and I?! No, nope. Never.”

“Why? If you don’t mind me asking but every-time I see you two together you always seem very close.”

“Because we are,” you shrugged. “But not in that way. I don’t like him like that and he doesn’t like me. Guys and girls can be just friends, you know.”

“I know _that_ ,” Leonard tried to defend himself. “I was just asking.”

“And I was just answering.”

He drank another mouthful of whiskey and studied you thoughtfully. “You kind of talk in circles sometimes. Not in a nonsensical way, but you manage to twist people’s words on themselves. I don’t know how to explain it properly.”

“Do I?” You replied smoothly.

“You’re doing it there.”

“Doing what?”

“That! Stop it!”

“Stop what?”

Leonard threw up his hands in frustration. That sneaky smirk was back on your first. You looked down at the table, trying to hide your amusement but he had already seen it. You knew how to wind him up. You definitely were a sly one, and apparently well able to read him.

“Okay, I’ll stop!” you held up both hands in surrender. “As long as you get next round.”

“We have to be up at 5am tomorrow,” Leonard reminded you.

“Well, I guess we’d better hurry then.”

Leonard thought about saying no. He thought about saying he had to go, and that you should too. But he found that he was actually quite enjoying himself. And the happy, hopeful look on your face… It made him not want to leave. Not yet.

“Alright,” he chuckled, pushing himself up and away from the table. “Same as before?”

“You know it,” you smirked, raising your glass in a toast to him.

“Got it.” He left the table, striding up towards the bar and attempting to smother a smile.

He ordered the drinks, and the girl behind the bar nodded to him emotionlessly. She didn’t seem as talkative with him as she had been with you, but that was probably because she knew him. She swiftly prepared the drinks, and he paid with card. Taking them both gingerly in his hands, he turned back around.

You were watching him with a strange expression on your face, a mix of disbelieve and amusement. Not knowing what caused it made him get slightly self-conscious, so he took a deep breath to calm himself down. He tended to snap when he was on edge, and didn’t want to do that with you. The ever-present urge was still there. The one to be nice to you, to not hurt you in anyway. It was odd, though once more probably explicable since he’d seen you almost die. Technically he did actually see you die, seeing as your heartbeat had stopped.

Returning to the table, he placed your drink gently in-front of you, careful not to have any spill from the side. Moving around the small circular table, he sat back down. The memory of your kind-of death had brought up some questions. Questions that he hadn’t been able to ask or get answers to from anyone else.

“Can I ask you something?” He posed carefully, stirring his drink as his eyes bore into your face.

You looked at him inquisitively, and then shrugged. “Sure.”

“Have you… Have you experienced any strange symptoms since your recovery?” He tried to make it sound light, but noticed the way your head tilted slightly as you caught on that it was more than just an innocent question.

He thought you may ask, and that he’d have to lie to you. However, you ended up simply shaking your head after brief consideration. “Nothing out of the blue. Except for the miraculous recovery, but I’m sure you already knew about that…?”

While you didn’t enquire outright, there was a seed of curiosity there. Your words provided an opening, it he would take. But he didn’t. He had been sworn to secrecy, and if someone found out he would certainly use his job. Plus, he wasn’t sure how well you’d take the knowledge that he’d injected you with a large dose of the synthesized blood of a genetically enhanced mass-murder so that he could keep you alive.

“Yes,” he answered smoothly. “I was just curious.”

You let out a wry laugh, gaze dropping to your glass as you seemed to realise he wouldn’t share the information with you. He knew it must be frustrating, to have something done to you but not knowing what. You took it well though. He didn’t get the feeling you resented him for staying quiet. Instead you were simply grateful for him saving your life.

“Well, cheers,” you said, holding your drink out to him.

Leaning across the table, he clinked his into yours once more.

Time passed quicker than he'd expected too. You bought him one more round before you decided to head back and get some sleep. Undoubtedly the following day would be extremely busy, so being tired and cranky was not the best option. Still, hanging out with a near stranger was more fun than he expected. You talked about anything, staying away from darker topics and keeping to light conversations. He found that you pulled stories of the Enterprise out of him endlessly, something other people would have found nearly impossible. It was disconcertingly easy. Something about you, it made him feel like he'd known you for a long while. He guessed, in a way, he had.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed! More to come soon (I hope)!


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! Kind of late post, my apologies! Thanks for being so patient. I had my college finals and started my summer internship, so I really didn't have time to be sitting down and posting. Got the confirmation though, ya girl is graduating this summer! (Well, technically in September but whatever...) This chapter is a bit longer because yanno, Reader sets off on the Enterprise. Hope you all enjoy! (And I'll try to start replying to comments over the next few days, but just so you know I have seen and appreciate all of them!)

**Chapter Thirteen - You**

“I’m really okay to get back on my own,” you protested as Leonard walked you back to your dorm room. “I only had three drinks. And I can take care of myself. You’ve seen me fight.”

Leonard just shrugged, not bothering to answer but continued to walk you back. Eventually you gave up protesting and just let the southern gentleman do his thing. If this was how he was raised to do things it would be rude to continue to refuse. Also you had had a nice time and you didn’t want him getting offended. You weren’t really sure what would set that off. His mood had flipped a few times over the course of the drinks, but you were mostly putting that down to the slightly awkward atmosphere that is always present when two people who don’t really know each-other try to hang out.

It was one in the morning now. You had to be up in around four hours. You weren’t super concerned about being tired tomorrow. The excitement would keep you awake. Plus, you were comforted by the fact that even if you had never gone out and were still cosy in your bed you probably wouldn’t be able to sleep anyhow with the jitters.

“It’s a right here,” you mumbled, shoulder bumping into his as you moved to take the right-hand path in the fork in the road.

Leonard walked along beside you, and when you snuck a glance up at him you were suddenly aware of just how much he towered over you. “Hey, how tall are you?”

He looked at you with a raised brow. “Six-one.”

“Nice,” you nodded. You weren’t really sure what to say, or even why you’d decided to ask that question.

“Yup,” he popped the ‘p.’ “How tall are you?”

You told him and he nodded silently, before shoving his hands deeper in his pockets as he walked. You found yourself almost jogging to keep up with the pace set by his grasshopper legs, and obviously noticing this he adjusted it so you weren’t rushing after him.

“Somewhere to be?” you smiled.

“Just to bed. Gotta be up in a few hours,” Leonard replied.

“Yeah, around four hours sleep. Usually I’d need a forklift to remove me from my bed after so little sleep. I’m sure it’s different for you, being the CMO and all you have to be up early.”

He chuckled at that. “You got it, kid. I can make four hours worth of sleep last like you wouldn’t believe.”

It was a weird thing to brag about, being able to survive on four hours sleep, but you laughed politely anyways. You could see the residences beginning to rise up in the distance, and you knew you’d be there and saying goodbye to Leonard soon enough. The cold was keeping your mind fairly alert, but your body was beginning to definitely tire.

“I hope you’re not planning on riding that motorcycle over to the hangar tomorrow,” he suddenly interjected, turning to look at you with piercing eyes.

“No way to drive scrap metal,” you retorted. “I wanted to get another one after but I knew my mom would have a reaction similar to a nuclear fallout. She didn’t actually know I hadn’t sold the first one. That caused one hell of a blow-up after she’d finished being worried about me.”

“Those are dangerous,” Leonard said. He looked slightly uncomfortable and you knew he wasn’t enjoying lecturing you. That kind of confused you because telling people what to do seemed like it would be a beloved pastime of his.

“My grandad had left it to me. I did mean to give it away, but, y’know, it was his?” you attempted to explain. “Riding it made me feel closer to him after he died. If that makes any sense at all?”

The doctor seemed to consider what you said, before quietly responding. “I guess you and I think kind of differently.”

A moment of silent stretched out for a short while, before you gently broke it. “This is me,” you announced somewhat softly as you gestured at the building in-front of him. Leonard stared at it for a moment, drinking it in. “Where did you stay when you were in the Academy?” you asked.

His eyes dragged back to you for a moment, and then seemed to bore into you. He said nothing and you felt yourself beginning to get seriously uncomfortable by all the intense staring that had gone on tonight. Then he cleared his throat and nodded at the building you were standing in-front of.

“Here?” you gasped, suddenly filling the air smack into your lungs.

This was seriously weird. You had seen him nearly everywhere you went over the last few months (and apparently he had seen you too where he went). You run into him on a late night walk before setting off on the five year mission, and now you find out that he used to live in your building. The coincidence was getting harder and harder to accept. You weren’t sure how much merit you gave to the idea of fate, but at this stage you had to wonder to yourself if there was some reason for the always-close proximity of you and Leonard.

“What room number?” you enquired again.

“135,” he recounted almost instantly. Doctors and their good memory.

You had to put your hand to your mouth to stifle a giggle. “That’s the room opposite mine.”

“You have to be joking,” Leonard said flatly.

“I’m not,” you protested. “Do you want to see?”

The question immediately had his shifting uncomfortably again, and after a moments contemplation of what could be the reason why you understood and winced. “Not what I meant, again. I’m sorry.”

“I know it’s not what you meant,” Leonard actually shot a small smile after you. “It’s just that if someone was to see me in the corridors of the recruit's residences… Personal relationships between superiors and subordinates aren’t outlawed, but I’d like to keep distance from any rumours of me predatorily stalking the student’s hallways.”

You had to laugh at that. “That’s fair. I understand,” you smiled at him before checking your watch. “Anyhow, it is late and we do have to be up fairly soon. I won’t keep you. Thank you for rescuing me from my over-thinking and walking me back to my place. And once again thank you for saving my life that one time.”

McCoy looked at you, his hair falling across his eyes a bit. He smiled softly and you were a bit taken aback by how gentle the usually-stern doctor could look. “You’re welcome, and goodnight. I hope to see you around onboard the Enterprise, though not in the med-bay. Good luck.”

Still facing you, he stepped back. His face fell into shadows but you could still see his bright eyes focused on you. He twisted suddenly, and began to stride away, his scarf flapping behind him. You watched his retreating figure with your hand outstretched towards the door scanner. Before you could stop yourself you called after him. He half-turned back to you.

“Would you like to hang out again sometime?” You asked, embarrassed and hopeful at the same time.

You quickly saw the surprise register on his face before an expressionless mask dropped over his face to hide his emotions. He pondered for a second and you felt your stomach twist with nervousness. It would be highly awkward if he said no. After a few painful moments, he answered.

“I work long hours, but I’d be up for it if there’s ever a time we can swing it.”

You had to work hard to hide the smile creeping across your face. While with anyone else that reply might be interpreted as unenthusiastic, you had the feeling that with McCoy it wasn’t. You didn’t know him very well, but it was easy to see that he was the kind of person who said exactly what they were thinking. He wouldn’t have said he would if he didn’t want to, and that part about long hours was easily believable.

“Cool,” you dipped your head. “I’ll see you around, then.”

“Goodnight, kid.” There was a soft note in his voice.

“I told you not to call me that,” you remarked with a smile.

He just shrugged slightly, before turning around and starting to walk away once more. You watched him for a few seconds, before realising staring at him could be seen as being creepy. Whirling around, you held your card to the scanner once more. It beeped and you quickly yanked the door open and stepped inside. Leaning back against the cool metal you let your head tilt back. You closed your eyes and let out a deep breath.

That had been one seriously strange night.

In some ways, Leonard McCoy was different to how you had imagined him to be. But in other ways he was similar to the picture you had in your head. He was grumpy, broody, and didn’t seem to sugar-coat things, but there was also a certain softness to him underneath it all. You could see it sometimes when he looked at you. Maybe it was due to the fact he had seen you laying, dying on a hospital bed.

Shaking your head you peeled yourself away from the door and trekked upstairs to your room. Holding your card to the scanner again, you waited. It beeped once before the door slid back. You crossed the threshold into your room and realised that this, this right here, was the very last time that you would ever step into this room again. It was kind of surreal.

Your stuff was where you left it, the copy of ‘the Count of Monte Cristo’ staring up at you from where it lay at the top of your unzipped bag. You’d not given it back to him, again. At least returning it would provide a reason to see him again.

There was nothing else to be done, so you went to the bathroom to brush your teeth before falling into bed. At this rate you were tired enough to fall asleep pretty quickly, because you weren’t back half an hour before you were asleep. It was one of those unsatisfactory sleeps, however. Those ones where it seems like you’ve just closed your eyes for a mere second before you’re forced to get up again.

The alarm was shrill in your ear as it screeched at you. You lifted your head, bleary at first from lack of sleep. You were confused for a few seconds, trying to figure out what was going on. However, at that moment there was a loud banging on your door. You silenced the alarm before stumbling to your room and tapping a few buttons on the panel on the back of the door. A screen popped up in-front of your face and you squinted against the brightness. The screen displayed the corridor outside your room, and Amira, who was standing on the opposite side of the door.

You immediately opened it, coming face-to-face with your best friend. She had been crying, you could tell that by the way her eyes were watery and her nose was red. Something was wrong, and you had a suspicion that you knew what it was. You stared at her for a second, your mouth twisting down in sympathy. She gazed back, before her face crumpled into a sob. You reached forward and pulled her into a tight hug, burying your face in her shoulder. She cried into you and you clasped her tightly and told her it would be okay.

“We broke up,” she managed to hiccup out. “Five years… It’s too long.”

You nodded, not really knowing a response. You ended up simply telling her you were sorry. While it wasn’t much, the sincerity in your voice seemed to help her pull herself together. She sniffled, and then withdrew, pushing her hair out of her eyes.

“It was for the best,” she sighed.

“I’m still sorry,” you repeated. “But hey, the most amazing wing-woman duo in the world is back!” You were trying to cheer her up with a slight bit of humour. “I can finally relieve Logan of his position. He’s an awful wing-man. You were always much better.”

She smiled but it didn’t really reach her eyes. “Do you have anyone in mind that you need help with?”

Your mind flashed briefly to McCoy, but no. You didn’t like him like that. You’d hung out once. So you shook your head.

She looked down at your pyjama clothed body, and then raised her gaze to you once more. “You need to get dressed, we gotta go.”

You only then noticed she was wearing her uniform and smiled at her. “It suits you, doctor!”

She laughed then, a bit of excitement shining through her sadness. “We can be twins in our blue uniforms.”

You stepped back to usher her in. She went over and sat on your bed, setting her rucksack down on the floor in-front of her. You snatched a blue dress out of your bag, before retreating in the bathroom to change. You left the door cracked so that you could talk. Within a few seconds, you were out. Ready to go. You folded your pyjamas and went to put them into your bag.

“Jesus, this dress is short,” you grumbled as you bent down.

Amira chuckled once more. “Tell me about it. I dropped some change on the street and almost flashed everyone around me when I went to pick it up again.”

You fished a hairbrush from your bag and straightened up, for the first time catching sight of yourself in your floor length mirror. You hadn’t looked at your reflection in the bathroom. Maybe it was just vanity, but you thought that it suited you too. That it looked like you were made to wear it.

“I’m proud of you, you know,” Amira said quietly. “You could have let that accident stop you, but you worked harder than anyone to make up for all the class you missed. You deserve this.”

That made your eyes well with tears, and you turned to give your friend an affectionate look. “So do you, you’ll have kicked McCoy out of his position by the time we get back.”

She smiled happily back at you, a slight blush creeping across her cheeks as what you said obviously pleased her. “Brush your hair, we need to go. The shuttle is soon.”

You did as requested, popped the hairbrush back in your bag, and hoisted it off the floor and over your shoulder. You looked at your friend, and then frowned slightly. “Are you going to be alright?”

Her expression dropped for a moment, before she squared her shoulders in resolve and lifted her clear eyes to yours again. When she spoke, her words were strong. “I will be.”

***

You actually made it in plenty of time for the shuttle, which was surprising because these things always seemed to go the opposite way for you. The excitement and the fresh air woke you up almost immediately when you stepped out, though Amira still asked why you yawned a good few times. You would usually tell her everything, but you felt a bit odd talking about your drinks with Leonard McCoy last night as she and her boyfriend had just broken up. Not that there was anything to tell, but you didn’t want to make today about you.

Instead as you strapped yourself into your seat, you focused on cheering her up, telling awful jokes and being positive about what the future had in store for you both. She seemed appreciative of your efforts, and by end of the short journey she had some semblance of a smile on her face again, and her mood seemed to have improved slightly. The shuttle docked in one of the hangar decks, and everyone queued up to dismount.

Your entire body was shaking slightly with barely contained excitement. All that hard work… It had all paid off. You were going on the five year mission on the Enterprise. It was quite literally your dream come true. A touch against your wrist made you look down and you saw Amira grasping your hand, squeezing it tightly before letting go. There were still a few lines of sadness on her face, but her eyes were shining.

The line in-front of you moved and you shuffled along, finally getting off the small aircraft. A superior officer was waiting at the bottom of the steps, PADD clasped against his chest as he eyed you all sternly. Following everyone else, you fell into formation in-front of him, forming a number of neat and tidy rows.

“Good morning,” he said curtly as everyone moved into a salute. “Welcome, ensigns. You have the honour of being selected to work on one of the most prestigious ships, under one of the best captains the Federation has ever seen. In a few short years, James Tiberias Kirk has saved countless lives, a legacy his father left before him. You will be expected to follow his every order instantly and without question. Each of you have a crucial role to perform in the running of this ship, which you will do to the best of your ability. I will now divide you all up, some of you will have to report to your posts immediately to prepare for take-off, while others are not needed at the moment and can go deposit their personal belongings in their rooms before making their way to their work stations for introductory talks. Understood?”

There was a shout of agreement from all of you facing him, and he nodded, looking slightly pleased. Without another word, he held the PADD in-front of his face and tapped the screen once to turn it on. He cleared his throat, and then began to read from the list of names, accompanied by where they were meant to report.

“Ensign ______!”

“Present,” you called.

“Deposit your belongings in Room C31 and then report to the advanced weaponry lab in the science department at 0800 hours.”

“Yes, sir!” you saluted, picking up your bag and beginning to walk away from the line, shooting a look back at Amira as you did. She smiled encouragingly at you before turning back to face the officer in-front of her, still reading names.

“Here!” you heard her bark as you got further away.

You looked around, trying to spy the lift that would take you to Sector C of the Enterprise’s area. Eventually, you saw it and made your way over, dodging crowds and people all around. There was a check point just in-front of it. Red shirted security crew members were running scanners over bags placed on metal desks. You got in line, watching them search for any contraband and a tall, dark-haired guy caught your eye.

Logan was leaning over a rucksack, running a scanner over it. His face scrunched up slightly as he read the results. After a second he nodded to himself and allowed the waiting man to pick up his bag and hurry towards the lift as the doors began to close. You almost called out to him, but managed to stop yourself. It would have been unprofessional. You’d say something when you got closer.

He was busy with someone else when it was your turn to get your bag checked. You kept sneaking looks at him while waiting, hoping to catch his eye. Obviously feeling your gaze, he turned and caught you sneaking another look on him. He broke out into a quick smile and shot you a wink, quickly reaching out with his hand to brush your arm in an affectionate manner.

“I’ll see you later,” he mouthed, and you nodded in response.

Your bag was approved, and so you stepped forward and swept it off the table. Just as you did, a loud, indignant voice rang out and grabbed your attention.

“Dammit, man! I’m the Chief Medical Officer on this ship and I’m late. What do you mean you can’t just let me go to the front?!”

Logan twisted to look at you again, smirking with amusement and barely contained laughter. You had to put a hand to your mouth to stifle a giggle. The voice was familiar, as you’d only heard it a few hours ago. Also you didn’t know anyone who used ‘dammit’ half as much.

“It’s alright,” one of the senior officers told the junior security officer McCoy was yelling at. “Just let him through.” The officer’s voice was filled with resignation, and you felt like this wasn’t the first time McCoy had had a temper tantrum in-front of him.

The crowd parted like the red sea as the CMO came storming through. As he cleared them he caught sight of you, standing there with your bag in hand, and his step faltered slightly. A flicker of embarrassment passed over his face, before being replaced by his usual gruffness.

Logan stepped forward to take his bag, and McCoy passed it without saying a word. He was still looking at you, and it was quite noticeable.

“Do I have something on my face?” you heard yourself asking, sounding confused.

Logan snorted loudly. McCoy seemed to snap out of whatever trance he was in, and shot your friend an annoyed look. Logan took that as a sign to quickly turn to check McCoy’s bag, hiding the smirk that was undoubtedly still on his face from view.

“Nope. Just didn’t expect to see you here,” McCoy answered.

“Block C,” you smiled. “I’m surprised to see you here. Senior officers are usually in Block A, right?”

He nodded, before explaining. “I’m late, this entrance was closest when I came in.”

“Cool,” you nodded, not really sure what to say to your kind-of-but-not-really friend.

“Good to go,” Logan turned back around, passing McCoy back his bag.

You motioned towards the lift and McCoy nodded. You took that as incentive to turn away from him and walk towards it, counting on the fact that he was following you. You stepped in it, and it was already pretty full. When McCoy got in and stood beside you the doors closed and you were carried up to the deck of the star-ship.

You snuck a look at him from under your lashes. He was staring at the door, rucksack slung over one shoulder. He had his blue uniform on. It suited him. However there were dark rings under his eyes, and you figured by the grumpier than usual demeanour that he hadn’t slept well after you had returned from drinks.

“Get back okay?” you found yourself asking, because you didn’t know what else to say.

“Would I be here if I didn’t?” he snapped in response. “Don’t ask stupid questions.”

You stared at the ground, widening your eyes in a mix of shock and slight exasperation. You felt like snapping back, but he was no longer the guy you had had drinks with last night. He was your superior officer and you weren’t going to be disrespectful to him on the first day, in a crowded space filled with others to here. Even if he had been rude to you himself. So you decided that for once you were going to have to keep your mouth closed and stay nothing.

_Asshole._

A few minutes of tense silence followed, until the lift stopped and the doors slid open. McCoy let out a sigh, like he was going to say something, but you were already out, pushing past him and striding away. You may have had enough restraint not to snap back at him in that moment, but you didn’t want to test your resolve by staying around him longer than necessary. You disappeared around the corridor, marching full steam ahead as you followed the signs towards your room.

As you rounded the corner, you saw McCoy walk away in the other direction.

_Yeah. Asshole._

Finding your room, you scanned your thumb against it. The Federation had logged your fingerprints, and the door light beeped green and slid open. You stepped in and looked around. It was small. Tiny even. It consisted of a bunk-bed, a small desk, and a bean-bag in the corner. A minifridge and safe were mounted into the wall. There was a door off to one side, and when you pushed it open you saw it contained a small bathroom. The little bathroom consisted of a toilet, wash-basin, and a shower crammed in the corner of the room. A few shelves lined the wall.

You went and examined the bunk beds. They were decent quality, and looked quite comfortable. Both had charging stations built into the wood, beside the mattress, and it had space to store other items. Both also had curtains built into them which could be drawn across for privacy. You liked that. It was a nice touch. 

Your room was not here yet, so you had your choice of the beds. Or… Did you? Stepping forward, you noticed that there were names displayed in glowing tabs along the panel of both beds. The initial of your first name, followed by your full last name lay across the one at the bottom bunk. You lifted your gaze to the name written on the top bunk, which was hovering at eye level, and then started in surprise and happiness.

_Johnson, A..?_

_Amira?!_

You pulled out your PADD and fired a quick text to Amira, asking what room she had been registered to. You couldn’t believe you hadn’t asked that earlier, though other things had been on your mind. She did not respond, and you knew that she was probably still in her orientation talks.

You through your stuff down on your bed, and began to unpack your bag. There were two wardrobes built into the wall, so you took the one of the left to store your clothes. After it was all done, you went into the bathroom and stocked the shelves with toiletries. You had a few minutes before you decided you should head towards the science department, so you lay down upon your bed. Putting your arms behind your head, you stared up at the wood over you. This was your life for the next five years.

Your PADD beeped beside you, and you picked it up. You expected it to be a message from Amira, but instead it was from a name you only dimly recognised. _Carol Marcus… Ah yes, the disgraced admiral’s daughter._ She was requesting your presence early in the weapons labs, seeing as you were going to be the only other, albeit junior, advanced weaponry expert on board, and so would be working under her command.

Hopping out of the bed, you yanked on a pair of shoes, before tucking your PADD under your arm and setting off at the hasty trot towards the science labs.

This time, for fear of getting lost, you opened your PADD and logged onto the ship’s map, where you were represented by a tiny red dot in the massive blue outline of the ship. You input where you wanted to go, science department, laboratory subsection G, and the PADD began to give you detailed directions on how to get there. You were so busy keeping an eye on it as you walked that you crashed into someone.

Apologising profusely as you knew it was your fault, you looked up into the face of the person you had crashed into. Your eyes widened in shock and horror.

“Captain Kirk!” you yelped, jumping into a salute. “I beg your pardon, sir!”

“Ice rink girl,” he laughed, blue eyes sparkling.

You sucked in a breath, shocked that he actually remembered you.

“Yes, sir.”

“Where are you off to in such a hurry?” he adopted a tone of easy familiarity, and you could feel the full force of his charm being turned upon you.

“My superior officer, Doctor Marcus summoned me. I was on my way to the science lab.”

“Carol?” he smiled. “You’re working with Carol?”

“Indeed so, Captain. We both have specialisation qualifications in advanced weaponry.”

“Impressive, very impressive. Well, I won’t keep you. But tell Doctor Marcus that I’s like her to report to the bridge for warp. You’re welcome to come too.”

_Wow._

Your mouth gaped open as you were literally lost for words. You had admired Captain Kirk so much for all he had done in his relatively young Starfleet career. You never thought he would look at you twice, never mind recognise you and invite you to the bridge to watch the first warp.

“Yes, Captain. Thank you,” you managed to stammer.

He smirked at you and reached out to pat your shoulder. You watch him over your shoulder as he sauntered away without looking back. In doing so, you caught sight of someone else you had not noticed before.

Doctor McCoy had been standing off to the side, watching your interaction with Kirk. He was half blocked by a crowd of security officers, but his blue uniform stood out against their red, and he towered over all but two of them. Realising that you caught him staring, he quickly looked away from you and focused on the ground in-front of him and began to stride off. You could see by the signpost that he was probably headed towards the med-bay.

Shrugging off his weird-ass mood, you resumed walking towards the science department, which for now was in the same direction as the med-bay. You tried to ignore McCoy’s wide back as he rigidly stormed through the hallways in-front of you. You didn’t want to be caught looking at him, namely because you didn’t want him to approach you. It was an off-chance that he would even if he did catch you watching him, but you still wanted to discourage it at all costs.

Eventually, a split came. The med-bay lay straight ahead while the science department was off down a curving corridor to the right. You took the turn and continued walking until you reached the laboratories. You found subsection G with relative ease, as the rooms were all right beside each other and labelled clearly. You raised a fist, and knocked twice to announce your presence before pressing your thumb against the scanner. With a chime, the doors slid open and you entered the lab.

There was a woman leaning over a desk, reading a set of virtual blueprints. Her face was furrowed in a frown. When she heard you enter she looked up, and bright blue eyes met yours. She smiled at you warmly, and you had to return it.

“Ensign _______?” she asked, striding towards you. “I’m Doctor Carol Marcus, though you can just call me Carol. We’re going to be spending a lot of time together, so it would be nice if we could be friends.”

Her voice was high, with an English accent accompanying it. You had to smile on her words. For a woman so extraordinarily beautiful, she seemed very friendly as well.

“I’d like that,” you took her outstretched hand and shook it. “You can just call me _____, also. It’s lovely to meet you.”

“I hear you’re just recently graduated from the Academy,” she smiled. “Well done. Not many new graduates get assigned to ship such as the Enterprise for their first mission. Especially one of this duration. You must have done exceedingly well.”

You blushed, flattered and slightly embarrassed all at once. “Well… I really wanted this. So I was motivated to work for it.”

“Congratulations are still in-order. Now, I called you down here a bit early so that we could become acquainted, but also so that we could discuss what our purpose is here on-board this ship. We are both qualified in advanced weaponry, and so we are meant to examine every and all new pieces of combat or defense equipment to be brought upon this ship from other new worlds, and to make improvements to our own existing equipment in-case they are needed. Unfortunately at the moment we have nothing really to examine. However we have to conduct daily checks on the deflector shields status along with the engineers and any other defensive or offensive weapon’s systems on this ship to make sure they are in top condition. You never know when these things are needed.”

“Sounds good,” you responded, slightly disappointed that you did not have more to do at the current moment other than weapons checks.

Obviously noting the slight disappointment that you were trying to mask, Carol flashed you a brief smile before continuing. “Kirk has also issued us with a little project to keep us busy. Against some races, such as Klingons and Romulans, the stun setting on phasers is not that effective. It barely puts them down, or if it does it is for mere minutes at a time. Captain Kirk wants us to include a component to specifically target Klingons and Romulans. In other words, we have to alter them to have a greater effect upon these two races while not heightening the effect that they have upon other races in-case it results in increased, or even fatal damage. We cannot just simply ‘up’ the stun power, so to speak. Do you understand?”

_That was more like it._

“Yes,” you responded eagerly.

“We can first of all start upon our daily checks of the systems, and then when we are done in around an hour or two we can report back and begin working on this,” she smiled.

“Oh, that reminds me!” you slapped a hand to your forehead. “Captain Kirk told me to tell you that he requests your presence upon the bridge for the first warp.”

“He did?” you noticed that she was blushing slightly, but chose to ignore it.

“Yes, I ran into him on the way here. Like, literally. He said I could come too…” you trailed off, asking her permission without really saying so. After all, she was the senior weaponry officer and your superior.

Her eyes were kind as she read the hope on your face. “It’s a great honour for us both to be invited to the bridge by the Captain to see the first warp!”

“He’s not like other captains, is he?” you asked. “He seems a lot more informal.”

“Kirk enjoys people,” she nodded. “He’s a terrible flirt, but a good man with a good heart. He’ll go to any lengths for his friends.”

You dipped your head in agreement, not really sure what to say. You could tell there was a fondness there, or maybe even some kind of history, but it wasn’t your place to ask. She stopped down and gathered up some files from the desk, handing you some and keeping hold of the others herself.

“We’re going to go around together today and tomorrow,” she explained, “so that I can show you exactly what we have to do. After that we’ll divide the duty checks and it will take a lot quicker.”

“Sounds good to me,” you smiled. You appreciated how she was taking the time to teach you, rather than just sending you off without any training to conduct the tasks. You were confident enough in your ability to understand and get them done, but it was always nice to have some previous instruction. She started to the door, pressing her thumb against the scanner and you followed her through the doors when they opened. Heading towards the engineering deck, a few minutes of silence stretched out in-front of you before you couldn’t keep yourself from asking a question.

“Doctor McCoy, what’s he like?”

She shot you a surprised look and you blushed slightly. A small smile curved her lips. “McCoy. He’s… grumpy. Most of the junior doctors and science staff are terrified of him. He’s reputed to have a bit of a temper, but I must stress that while he does bark there is no bite. He’s a decent man under all the gruffness, and he’s very good at his job.”

“Is it true he helped Commander Spock save Captain Kirk last year?”

“He did more than just help him… The Commander gets most of the credit, but it was Dr McCoy who figured out what needed to be done to save Kirk, sent Spock to retrieve the item, and then McCoy made the serum that brought Kirk back.”

“Brought him back?” you asked quickly, catching on to her words. "Wait, I thought he was just hurt? Was Kirk... Was he dead?"

She blanched slightly as she realised she had slipped up, before her eyes hardened and focused upon you. “You were not meant to hear that. As your superior officer, I order you to forget what you heard and never repeat it to anyone. You are not to ask more on this topic again. The information is classified, and with good reason.

“Yes, ma’am,” you said meekly. “I’m sorry, I meant no offense.”

She stared at you for a second, before letting out a loud sigh. Her shoulder slumped and she rubbed a hand over her face. When she looked at you again, her expression had softened. “It’s alright. I may have been a bit harsh there. I just said something I shouldn’t have…” She trailed off, biting her lip.

“Hey,” you said softly. “I’m not going to say anything. Scout’s honour.”

That made her laugh and relax once more. You smirked back, happy to be getting along with her once more. Together, you continued on towards the engineering deck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bit of angst. Grumpy Leonard is grumpy. (Also I don't know much about what advanced weaponry does, so I tried my best there. Sorry if it's wrong!) Let me know what you thought!


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello my precious lil sunflowers. How are you all? Posting this bc you deserve it, and bc ya girl finished her intenrship today is going on her holibops tomorrow. Literally as soon as I get back I then start my new Big Girl job. Gah. Adulting. Make it stop.

**CHAPTER FOURTEEN - Leonard**

“Bones!” Jim’s joyous voice echoed behind him and Leonard groaned out loud. “Why are you still down here? I told you I wanted you up on the Bridge with me.”

“I’m the CMO, Jim,” Leonard growled, refusing to look up. He was typing furiously onto his PADD, recording his own blood pressure. He had abnormally high blood pressure on board space ships anyhow, but according to his tricorder it was sky-rocketing right now. Probably due to the 'Five Year Hell Mission into The Great Big Fucking Nothing.' _Dammit._

His foot was tapping on the ground furiously, a tense action he unconsciously did to try to release some stress. The high blood pressure had put him into a state of ‘fight or flight,’ and so he was snapping at everyone around him. Everyone was giving him a wide berth, except (of course) for Jim. Leonard felt that he could call Jim every name under the sun and the Captain would still be undeterred from following him around and harassing him.

You on the other hand… He felt a small pang of guilt  run through him when his mind flashed back to your shocked face. He hadn’t meant to snap at you. He was just stressed and flustered, and also slightly embarrassed. He had known he was being difficult and he was okay with doing that in front of strangers, but when the crowd parted he hadn’t expected you to be standing there staring at him.

After his initial flare of anger, he had been cooling off as the lift ascended. He had wanted to apologise to you, but didn’t know how. Saying sorry wasn’t something he was used to. However, the doors had opened and you had stepped purposely out. He had stepped towards you, mouth opening to say something, but you didn’t pause. He’d watched your back as you stomped down the corridor in front of him, and he could almost see steam emanating from your ears.

After depositing his hand held bag in his room and taking a quick shower, he had headed to the med-bay to oversee what was going on. He had delegated the role of introductory talks to one of the senior medical officers under his command, though he himself would give his own speech later. As he was walking, he caught sight of the familiar gold uniform and blond hair of Jim standing in the corridor. He had started to approach, but then noticed who Kirk was talking to.

You were standing in front of him, wearing your blue science uniform. You had a PADD tucked under your arm, and he could see by its unlocked screen that you had been using a map of the ship. He watched you and Kirk talk, and it did not seem like a captain-to-ensign talk, it was far too friendly. He was used to Jim acting like that though, he considered everyone on the ship to be his friend. However, Leonard was too preoccupied wondering about the happy look in your eyes as you regarded the Captain. You had a beaming grin on your face, and your eyes were bright with excitement as you enthusiastically answered whatever Jim had said to you.

You spoke a bit more, then Jim dipped his head and turned, walking away. Leonard found himself left completely exposed to your now-clear field of vision. Your eyes focused on him almost immediately, and he watched as your face dropped from a smile to a tight grimace upon realising he was there. An uneasy feeling came into his stomach. He didn’t like you looking at him like that, so he turned on his heel and strode away. He had deduced you were walking to the science labs, which was why he never turned around. His whole body felt uncomfortable, his back ram-rod straight as he knew you were trekking after him.

Eventually the fork came, and he only risked a look back when he was a significant portion of the way down the corridor that led to the med-bay. His glance behind afforded him one last glimpse of you as you turned into the curved corridor. Leonard had continued on to the med-bay, in a worse mood than before.

Now he was trying to work, and Jim was babbling relentlessly into his ear. He could literally feel his blood pressure reaching critical high as his friend nattered on and on. He tried to block it out, but Jim’s words suddenly caught his attention.

“I ran into that girl, as well. You know, the cute one we kept seeing all over the place? She had that cardboard crown at the bar? She’s working with Carol. Carol Marcus. Advanced weaponry, so she’s smart as hell. She seems cool enough, quite chill I mean. I invited them up to the Bridge for warp.”

“You invited _____?” He asked, standing upright suddenly.

“Um, yeah,” Jim took a step back, obviously caught off guard by the sudden movement. “Is that her name?”

“Yeah,” Leonard grumbled.

“Wait… Bones, how do you know her name?” A wide smirk was growing upon Jim’s face. “Is there something you haven’t been telling me?”

Leonard rolled his eyes in irritation and did not answer.

“Have you been looking her up?” Jim pressed. “Does she still have a boyfriend?”

“No, and no. Not that it’s any of your business.”

“Then how do you know her name?”

“I heard it in passing,” Leonard said dismissively, turning to type something into his PADD.

However, Jim seemed to know he was lying. He felt the Captain standing right behind him, and bristled but did not turn around. Jim waited for him to speak again, but Leonard said nothing. He was not willing to encourage further conversation on this topic.

“Maybe I’ll ask her when she comes to the Bridge.”

“No you will not!” Leonard exclaimed, turning around.

“Ah-ha!” Jim cried, pointing a finger into Leonard’s face. “I knew that you weren’t telling me something. C’mon then, what is it?”

Leonard really did not want to tell Jim, but he knew that the Captain would never stop until he did. So he sighed, making his annoyance clear in the scowl crossing his face. “Is a man not allowed to keep things private anymore?”

“Tell me,” Kirk smirked, a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. “I _order_ you to.”

Leonard shot his friend a look that said he’d prefer to punch him in the face, and then shook his head in defeat. Jim could be insufferable at times, and Leonard didn’t appreciate the abuse of power, but he couldn’t ignore a direct command. “I ran into her on the street last night. Randomly, not prearranged, before you wet yourself with excitement. We went for a drink.”

“You dirty old dog!” Kirk yelled, slapping him on the back and drawing the attention of almost everyone in the med-bay.

Leonard glanced around desperately, and then hissed at the Captain. “Shut your goddamn mouth!”

“A relationship with a subordinate! So come on, how did the night end?”

“There’s no relationship!” Leonard hissed as he began to push his friend out of the med-bay. “Nothing happened! We had a drink, I walked her home, and I left her at her front door.”

“So no night cap?”

“No night cap, Jim. We’re not all like you!”

“Now that just hurts me,” the Captain sighed, putting a hand over his chest. His beaming smile, however, said that he was not offended in the slightest.

Leonard had a feeling his friend would have fun with this, and regretted giving in so quickly. They reached the entrance of the med-bay. Leonard attempted to shove the Captain out and hit the button to close the doors, but Kirk’s hand blocked them. Leonard groaned, and tried to push him out again.

“Bones, where d’ya think you’re going? I told you, I want you up at the Bridge for the first warp. That’s an order too.”

“No.”

Jim’s face crinkled in confusion. “I thought you’d definitely want to go now? _____ is gonna be there. You can’t say you’re not the least bit interested in her, you wouldn’t be completely freaking out right now if you weren’t.”

Leonard sighed, and ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t think she’s gonna wanna see me,” he grumbled as he averted his eyes.

“How come?”

“I saw her this morning at the security check. I… I wasn’t exactly nice to her. She got outta there first opportunity that she could. Not that I blame her.”

“Bones…” Jim shook his head, smirking slightly. “When are you gonna learn? That ‘if he’s mean to you it means he likes you’ stuff is for children.”

“That’s not what I was trying to do,” Leonard protested, but Jim cut him off again.

“Look, maybe I’m not the best person to take romantic advice from-“

“It’s not-“ Leonard spluttered. Jim held up a hand to silence him, giving him a cautioning look.

“-But I do have experience with being an asshole,” Kirk continued. “Granted, I don’t beg for forgiveness that often, but I’ve done it before. Just say you’re sorry.”

“Say I’m sorry?” Leonard seemed aghast.

Jim rolled his eyes. “It’s not rocket science. You briefly snapped, but at this rate she’s probably heard you have a bit of a short fuse-“

Not exactly what Leonard wanted you to think, but what Jim said was probably true. He hoped you’d understand that he just shouted, he’d never done anything else. He could lose his temper, but only with words. He had never raised a fist to anyone.

“-Hopefully she’s figured not to take it personally.” The Captain had continued. “If you want, I can message Carol and ask if she said anything to her. ______ was on her way to meet her when I bumped into her. Plus it gives me an excuse to get a conversation going.”

“I’d rather not, Jim,” Leonard said gruffly.

While it was indeed somewhat appealing to know what you were thinking, he didn’t want to run the risk that Carol would inform you that you were being asked after. It would potentially make him look… weird. Despite everything, he didn’t want you to think worse of him. He was already unexplicably bugged by the idea that you already held him in negative regard.

“Well suit yourself, but you’re coming to the Bridge. I’m not dealing with you sulking today, so just apologise to the pretty girl and ask her out for coffee.”

“I’m not going to ask her out,” Leonard replied forcefully.

Jim sighed in exasperation, hand racking his hair. “Fine, don’t. Just apologise. You’re in a worse mood that usual and I’m pretty sure it’s due to that. And potentially the whole ‘five year mission’ thing. Yup, that too.”

“I hate space.”

“Yes you do. But that doesn’t change the fact that you’re wanted on the Bridge for warp. Come with me now.”

Leonard really had no choice. He knew that if he didn't, Jim would just harrass him. And he really wasn't up for that today. With a sigh, he motioned over one of the senior doctors, and told him to take charge of the medbay until he returned. Jim was grinning victoriously, happy to have won so easily. Leonard rolled his eyes.

The Captain led the way out into the corridor, heading past the engineering deck and up the steps. They made their way relatively quickly towards the Bridge. Jim pressed his finger against the scanners, and they strode in.

“Captain on zee Bridge!” Chekov called out.

Leonard gave a somewhat tight smile of greeting at the younger navigator, who returned it happily. Uhura was sitting over at her desk, tapping away at the keyboard. She seemed pretty transfixed on what she was doing, and didn't look around. Spock was standing behind the Captain's chair, hands clasped behind his back. He didn't pay Leonard any attention, except a single, curt nod.

“Mr Sulu! It's pretty addictive, huh?” Jim laughed.

Leonard turned, seeing that the pilot had been sitting in the Captain's seat. He rose with a laugh, revealing gleaming white feet.

“It's comfortable, sir?” He agreed wholeheartedly.

Just then, Leonard heard the door slide open with a hiss behind him.

“Permission to come aboard, Captain?” A clear, English-accented voice rang out.

Leonard immediately stiffened. He recognised the voice, and knew what it meant. Who it belonged to, and who would be coming with them. Ever so slowly he inched around.

“Permission granted!” Kirk called back eagerly.

Leonard watched as Carol Marcus stepped through the door. Obviously, the time with her family had done her good. She seemed healthy and in relatively good spirits again. He knew that the Khan incident and the death of her father had indeed been taxing on her.

She seemed to be speaking to someone over her shoulder as she crossed the threshold, and Leonard had a very good idea who it was. There was a split second of nothing. Next thing a foot appeared, stepping into the room. A body followed, clothed in a blue uniform. Leonard swallowed slightly, suddenly nervous, as all of you appeared on the Bridge. You seemed to be in a good mood. You were laughing, eyes flashing. It appeared that good humour was everywhere on the ship today.

Leonard shrunk back slightly, inching away from you. You hadn't even noticed him yet, too caught up in chatting to Carol and watching Jim Kirk and Spock flit around the deck. Your eyes were as wide as saucers, and you almost radiated excitement. Leonard felt another pang of guilty for ruining your big day with his bad temper. He was fearful for the moment that your gaze would fall on him, and your expression would change.

However, it didn’t happen. Too caught up in those around you and all that was going on, you didn’t glance his way. He shuffled to the side of the floor, unable to stop himself watch you as you descended the steps, eyes still fixed on everything happening. You wandered out into the middle, staring out the huge window beyond.

“Come on Bones,” Jim appeared in-front of him, hands landing solidly on Leonard’s arm. “It’s gonna be fun.”

You didn’t seem to notice. Leonard gritted his teeth. “Five years in space, God help me.”

Kirk smirked at him, and then whirled away and disappeared over to talk to Marcus. Unable to stop himself, Leonard moved forward. You didn’t see him fall into step beside you. For a moment, he searched for the words.

“I’m sorry,” he finally said, causing you to jump.

You looked at him in shock, before recovering. There was a brief hesitation, and he got a sinking feeling in his gut. Then, you nodded. A small smile formed on your face. Relief flooded through him. He had picked a good time, it seemed. You were too excited to be in a bad mood.

“It’s alright,” you told him softly.

If it was anyone else, he wouldn’t have apologised to begin with. The fact that he then said what he did next had him reeling. “No. It wasn’t alright. I shouldn’t have talked to you like that. It won’t happen again.”

You blinked at him, seeming slightly startled. He waited for a response, feeling a burning in the tips of his ears. He wasn’t used to admitting wrong-doing, not by a long shot. It made his palms slightly sweaty, which never happened.

Eventually, you responded. your face broke into one of the sunniest smiles he had ever seen. Your gaze dropped slightly, brushing over the ground before meeting his eyes once more. Soft fingers landed on his arm, and he glanced down to see you touching his sleeve gently.

“Thank you, Leonard,” you smiled.

“No problem,” he dipped his head curtly.

For a moment, you both said nothing. People hurried across the deck, getting into position. Leonard noticed Kirk had cornered Dr Marcus, though from the look on her face she didn’t seem to mind. Once more, his attention was drawn back to you. Your eyes were wide, and your breathing seemed accelerated as your chest rose and fell more rapidly than a person’s would normally.

“Are you ready for this?” Leonard asked kindly, nodding towards the darkness of space beyond.

You followed his direction, before shrugging and letting out a low chuckle. “Is anyone?”

Despite all his misgivings, Leonard smiled. “Come on. It’ll be an adventure.” They weren’t words he would have ever thought he’d say to anyone.

Behind you both, Kirk’s voice rang out. “Mr Sulu. Take us out.”

“Aye, aye Captain.”

There was the revving of the engine, that familiar low rumble. He knew it well by now. Nausea twisted slightly in his stomach, but he maintained his calm demeanor. He glanced back, and noticed Kirk watching him from the chair. The Captain’s face dropped into a sly wink.

Your grip on Leonard’s arm tightened, drawing his attention. He hadn’t expected it. He hadn’t realised that you had yet to remove your hand. You didn’t seem to notice either, eyes intent out on the huge window in-front. He thought he saw nervousness there. Of it’s own accord, his other hand crept up to cover yours. His fingers brushed reassuringly across your skin.

The Enterprise shuddered. And then, in a flash of light, it was gone, streaming into the sky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> P.S. For anyone who commented on something a few days ago and I have yet to get back to you, I'll try reply soon. I just mainly came on tonight to post stuff bc I dunno when I can next. Just know I've seen it and I love you xo
> 
> Hope you're all well, lovelies!
> 
> Also, the last part is meant to be the final scene from 'Into Darkness,' I don't know if anyone copped that by themselves!


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm absolutely raging. I had written the chapter after this, but somehow it got deleted. I'mma have to do it again :( I hope that Leonard isn't too OOC in this, I felt like he was a bit nicer than usual but he kinda had to be after last time! Anyhow, I hope you're all well!

You didn’t see Leonard for another week. Simply put, you didn’t have time. Every morning, you rose and reported to the engineering deck. There you were met by a team of engineers, and together you assessed the functionality of the warp core. From there, you headed to check on the deflector shields, and then onwards to the weapons bunker. During that time, you got to know Scotty pretty well.

At first he’d lingered around you, obviously uncomfortable with you fiddling around with the warp core. You didn’t take it to heart, you could understand he’d be unsure about the skills of someone who had only just graduated from the Academy a few weeks ago. After a few days, he started to relax as he could see that you knew what you were doing. No longer did he hang around to check up on you, but he stayed in order to chat.

You liked him. He was a nice guy, very funny. His comments could be dry and sarcastic, but it was a humour very matched with your own.  You started bringing coffee every morning, not just to him, but to your whole little team. It consisted of three guys and one girl, all of whom were also a bit weary at first, but they softened once the caffeine hit their throats.

They challenged you, and taught you other little things about engineering and machines. Seeing as your advanced weapons training was fairly similar. It too did consist of learning the parts of mechanical instruments, examining and fixing them, so you found you caught on to what they were saying pretty quickly. Even when you didn’t, they were happy to explain again.

It was usually around 10am when you finished your rounds. The engineers took a breakfast break then for half an hour, and you started joining them. Once you were done, you would grab another coffee just before you left, and make your way back to the lab. When you were there, you would hand Carol her drink, before sitting down to fiddle with the stun guns. This would go on until lunchtime, where you would go to eat together. 

Carol knew a lot of science officers, so usually you would sit with them. They were all nice, if not a bit more serious than the loud engineers. But you liked them all the same. The discussions would revolve around work, usually then turning to the politics on the ship. You kind of tuned out at that stage. Once lunch was over you would head back yourself, Carol always made some excuse to stay there a bit later. You thought you knew why. 

When leaving one time, you were stopped at the door by Logan. Having not seen him properly in a while as his hours were all over the place, you stayed to talk for a few minutes. When he finally had to go, you turned to watch him walk past you. It was then that you saw Carol, sitting in the canteen chatting and laughing. With Jim Kirk. 

Chuckling to yourself, you had left. You didn’t ask any questions when she came back, just happy to see the glow on her face. For some reason, it had you thinking of Leonard McCoy. You hadn’t seen him since the first warp, when he’d apologised for being an ass. And it wasn't like you were avoiding him. After months of seeing him everywhere while on Earth, you were now stuck on a spaceship together and you didn’t see him  _ once.  _

_ Go figure. _

Six days later, when this was lingering on your mind, you asked Amira. She had come back in, exhausted and sluggish. Dropping her bag on the ground, she had clambered up the ladder and thrown herself into the bed above you. You had been lying in your own bed, head propped up by two pillows. You held your PADD in your hands, its screen casting light over your face. Words dotted the screen, as you had been reading when you arrived.

“Hey,” you said, suddenly feeling a bit nervous.

“Hi,” she responded, her voice sounded smothered as she talked into her pillow.

“Good day at work?” You asked, clicking the PADD shut. 

She made a noise that could have been taken as a positive or a negative. Shaking your head fondly with a slight smile on your face, you rolled out of the bed. Standing up, you bounced slightly on your heels before crossing the room to the little counter. Grabbing two glasses from the shelf, you turned on the tap and filled the both with water. Approaching her, you held one out.

She was eyeing around eye level in-front of you, eyes half closed. Registering you were there, she propped herself up on her elbow. You passed her one of the glasses, before taking a sip of your own. She did the same, and you noted the bags under her eyes.

“Thanks,” she chuckled. “You’re lucky that your job is relatively 7 to 5.”

“It’s not bad,” you agreed. Casting around for something to say, you landed on… “Does everyone work as long hours as you do?”

“Most of them,” she answered as she sat up. “Except McCoy. He works longer hours. I swear he was there for two days straight once.”

Your eyebrows raised in surprise. You had known he was committed to his job, but not that committed.

“The man needs a life,” Amira said dryly, her eyes falling on you. “Or a girlfriend.”

Groaning, you pushed yourself away from the bed. Striding a few paces away, you turned back to her. “Don’t start with this again.”

“He asked me how you were getting on once,” she grinned, starting to look a bit more awake.

You paused. “When was this?”

“Like two days ago.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I thought you weren’t interested.” Her eyes gleamed.

You scowled. “I’m not. I’m just curious as to why you didn’t mention it.”

She shrugged. “I forgot.”

“Oh. Fair.”

“Yup,” she popped the ‘p.’

Hesitating for a moment, eventually the need to known won. “What did you say?”

“I said you were doing great.”

“That’s all?”

“What else was I meant to say? He’s not very talkative anyhow. He kind of just nodded and left.”

Nodding, you sat down on the beanbag across the room. She watched you from the top of the bunk bed, waiting for you to say something. Fiddling with your glass, you tried not to meet her knowing eyes. Finally, you sighed loudly.

“He’s not bad looking, is he?” It wasn’t really a question, and you said it with a hint of amusement in your tone.

“No, he’s not,” she sounded victorious. “Something else happened today. Someone came in with the same first name as you. It was shouted out and his head just  _ snapped  _ up. You should have seen it. I started to laugh and he just gave me this death glare.” She shook her head, giggling as she relived the memory. “You should go pay him a visit.”

“Why?”

“Because you think he’s cute.”

“I just said he was handsome, Amira. Not that I like him.”

She arched a brow, eyes examining you. Huffing slightly, you folded your arms around yourself. 

“Well, you did enjoy spending time with him. Didn’t you?” She questioned.

You nodded.

“Do you want to hang out with him again?”

Your hand went to the back of your neck, scratching it. “We discussed it at the end of the first night that we spent time together. He said he’d be up for it if he wasn’t busy. He seems pretty busy.”

Amira frowned, before speaking. “Pass me my bag.”

Obediently, you went and retrieved it from where she had dropped it at the end of the little ladder. Handing it up to her, you almost winced at how heavy it was. Amira took it like it weighed nothing, setting it down on her lap. Unzipping it, she began to rifle through it. It only took a second before she pulled out her PADD.

You watched as she unlocked it, the screen lighting up her face. Tapping it a couple of times, she then twisted it around for you to see. It was a rota, highlighted by little blocks of colour. Her finger pointed to one, the blue. 

“That’s him. Looks like he’s off for a break at lunchtime.”

“What am I meant to do?” You laughed. “Swing by and ask him to hang out then. It’s way too obvious. He’ll know you showed me.”

She chewed her lip. “I guess it might be a bit odd if you do show up the one day he’s off at a proper lunchtime…. But that’s your thing, right? Running into eachother at odd times.”

“I don’t want to be weird,” you shook your head.

Amira thought for a moment, before brightening again. “Once you finish with the engineers, come and drop me off a coffee. Bring one for him too, say you got it ‘just in case.’ That will start up a conversation.”

For a long moment you stared at her, incredulous. “You are scarily good at this.”

She shrugged. “Hidden talent.”   
  
***   
  


“Feeling alright, _____?” Scotty asked, his brow crinkling.

“What? Oh, yeah. I’m good!” You laughed, taking another sip of orange juice.

“Are you sure?” Francois leaned forward to get a better look at you. 

Her dark brows knitted in concern. Around you, the other three turned their attention to you. You shrank a little, feeling uncomfortable under the scrutiny. 

“I’m fine, guys. Why?”

“You just seem… Very quiet,” Scotty told you, watching you carefully.

You smiled gently at him, before reaching out. Gently, you took hold of his hand and gave it a light squeeze. “I’m fine, everyone. I’m just tired.”

They nodded sympathetically. 

“It happens after the first few days,” Francis piped up. “The excitement dies down, and then the long hours set in.”

It wasn’t that, but you nodded along anyhow. You didn’t really want anyone to know that you were nervous about seeing Leonard McCoy again. As much as you wanted to hang out, you were afraid of lingering awkwardness about him snapping at you.

The engineers made it their mission to try and cheer you on, something you appreciated them for. Soon enough, the half hour was up. You emptied your plate into the trash, stacking the tray on the trolley beside. The others bid you goodbye, and you went about your usual ritual of making coffee. Except this time it wasn’t Carol’s usual order. You had told her you may be a few minutes late today, and she said it was fine.

You knew what Amira drank, so that part was easy. Then you made your own. Once that was over, you set about pouring Leonard’s cup. After staring at the machine for a few moments while some impatient people cleared their throats behind you, you settled for just plain black coffee. Grabbing a cardboard cup holder, you wedged the different drinks into them, memorizing which went where. After that you grabbed a few coffee creamers and sugar tubes, before setting off.

You felt nervous as you walked down the spotless corridors. Heat flooded your palms, and your heart beat a bit quicker in your chest. The hall seemed to stretched in-front of you, infinitely long. And then you appeared in-front of the medical ward. Inside, you could see doctors and nurses milling around. There was no sign of Leonard McCoy, but he could be further inside. You had no doubt that Amira would have situated herself nearby for this. 

Taking a deep breath, you steeled yourself. Clutching the cup holder a bit tighter, you stepped over the threshold to the room. No one paid any notice of you. Your eyes flitted back and forth as yu walked, dodging out of the way of oncoming medical personel. Some coffee splashed out of the small hole on the lid, falling onto your hand. You winced, but the pain was gone in moments. 

Eventually, you saw her. She was standing at the side of the room, writing notes onto her PADD. Her brow was furrowed in concentration. As if she could feel your gaze on her, she looked up. A smile broke out on her face when she saw you, and she half-skipped towards you.

Reaching you, she touched your arm affectionately before taking the coffee you nodded towards. Your eyes flitted around the room, but you still didn’t see him. Looking back at her, she flicked her eyes over to a cubicle. The curtain was closed around it, obscuring the occupants from view.

“He’s in there,” she hissed softly.

“Well, he better come out soon. I can’t wait around all day and neither can you,” you whispered in response.

She shrugged. “I have a few minutes.” Clearing her throat, she raised her voice to a normal volume. “Thanks so much for bringing me the coffee, ______.”

“No problem,” you said, aware of the strain in your voice. _ It was obvious, it was too obvious. _

“You look really cute like that,” she continued. “You should keep your hair like that all the time.”

_ You wanted to kill her. You wanted to cringe. She may be good at the organisation, but she certainly sucked at the execution. _

Before she could say anything else that you would recoil at the memory of forever, the curtain of the cubicle was drawn back. A woman shuffled out, hopping slightly as she was on crutches. A moment later, McCoy emerged from its depths. His dark hair flopped over his forehead, and his usual stern expression covered his face.

His eyes fell on you, and he started slightly. Lowering his PADD, he just stared at you for a few seconds. Then he nodded stiffly, the semblance of a smile crossing his face. Lifting your hand, you waved awkwardly.

“Go talk to him,” Amira hissed, before turning on her heel and striding away.

Left alone in the hall, you felt very conspicuous and vulnerable. You didn’t have to feel that way for long, as Leonard, after a brief hesitation, walked over to you. You moved towards him as well, your paths meeting halfway. 

For a moment, you just looked up into his face. When you spoke, your voice was soft. “Hi.”

“Hi,” he responded. There was a second of awkward silence, before he spoke again. “How are you?”

“I’m good,” you smiled. “How are you?”

“No complaints,” he shrugged. “You’re getting on well then?”

It was so awkward.

“Yeah,” you chuckled. “I’m really enjoying it. Carol is really nice.”

He paused, glancing around before lowering his voice. You leaned in to hear him better. “She and Jim are spending a lot of time together.”

Gossip. Now that was more like it.

“I know!” You exclaimed in a whisper. “Is there something going on, or are they just friends?”

“There’s always something going on with Jim,” Leonard chuckled. “But this is special. I think.”

“I hope it doesn’t blow up,” you frowned. “That would be awkward.”

Leonard nodded vehemently. “Five years in space with your ex. I couldn’t think of anything worse.”

“Absolute nightmare,” you agreed, glad the conversation was flowing better. “Oh, here. I got you this on the off chance I’d see you here.” The planned chance, but he didn’t need to know that.

You didn’t miss the way that his eyes went slightly wide as you passed him the drink. He took it silently, examining it for a few moments. When he turned his eyes to you once again, his lips were curling upwards in a wry grin. A real one. It made you feel warm all over.

“Thank you,” he said softly. “This is… Appreciated.”

You shrugged. “You work a lot, I hear.”

“I do,” he nodded. “I… I don’t think anyone has ever brought me a coffee without being asked before.”

“They might be afraid that you’d shout at them if they got the drink wrong,” you said without thinking. 

Immediately, you clapped your hand to your mouth in horror. Your eyes fastened on Leonard in fear. That was so not how you were meant to talk to superior, especially in the middle of their division and in-front of all their subordinates.

Leonard just regarded you with an arched brow. Raising the cup to his lips, he took a sip. Then le sighed, removing the cup away from his mouth and licking his lips slightly. “Well, lucky for you, you got it right.” Then he surprised you by chuckling loudly, shaking his head as he watched you.

“Plain black coffee,” you chuckled, relieved. “I had a feeling.”

“You’ve been spying on me for long enough,” he commented. “I’d be upset if you hadn’t learned my likes and dislikes by now.”

You couldn’t believe it. He was being playful. There was a glimmer in his eyes. It made your face almost splinter with a grin.

“That was all unintended,” you replied. “you should know, you’ve done your fair share of stalking me too.”

“I think I know a lot of things about you,” he replied with a laugh. “And we’ve only hung out once.”

“Go on then,” you folded your arms challengingly. “Let’s see what you think you know.”

His head tilted to the side, shoe tapping against the floor. You felt his gaze become distant. Then they fixed on you again. He smiled, and his whole face lit up. It was a good look on him. You wondered why he didn’t do it more often. 

“So,” he started. “Right of the top of my head… Your go-to shot is tequila. You spend way too much time with your friends. You are genuinely  _ the worst _ ice skater I have ever seen, and you are one hell of a fighter. You’re far too kind to everyone around you, and you are probably one of the smartest people that I have ever met. And I’ve met a lot of smart people, kid.”

He finished, and you started to laugh. It was a genuine laugh, filled with happiness and a slight embarrassment. 

What had happened to grumpy Leonard McCoy?

“I should go,” you sighed, feeling regretful. 

You didn’t want to, but you couldn’t keep Carol waiting. He nodded, seeming to understand. You waited, wanting to see if he’d broach the topic first. You noticed the slight hesitation, the way he inhaled sharply and drew himself up to his full height. He towered over you.

“I actually have a scheduled break this lunchtime, if you would like to join me,” he said politely, once again kind of frowny.

“I’d love that.”

 

***

 

It wasn’t long before it was lunchtime. You told Carol you had agreed to meet a friend today, and she didn’t seem to mind. If anything, she seemed almost too eager for you to go and spend time with someone else. She claimed she wanted to finish up some paperwork, and so you left her in the lab. As you walked down the corridors, Captain Kirk approached.

You nodded to him, trying not to laugh. He seemed to know that you knew, winking at you in a playful manner before he passed by. Shaking your head in amusement, you continued on to the canteen. 

He was easy to spot outside of it, tall and towering above most of the others there. He offered you a smile as you came closer, and once again you thought about how friendly he was being today. You knew he was fond of you, but figured there was also an element of him being on his best behaviour after snapping at you previously.

“I ran into Kirk on my way here,” you told him mischievously.

Leonard chuckled. “You should potentially message Carol before you head back. You don’t want to walk in on anything.”

You wrinkled your face in disgust. “Ew. That’s my lab.”

He shrugged, and you were left to worry about touching surfaces when you returned after lunch. Together, you headed in. The line was fairly long, but you filled it with conversation. He seemed happy to listen as you told him about your work. You got your food, yourself buying some pasta while he got a full dinner. It was fortunate that you found seats at the edge of the cafeteria, where it was easier to be heard. 

He took everything in, always attentive, as you told him about the assignment for increasing the force of the stun setting. 

“You should speak to a biologist,” he added at one stage. “If you’re trying to increase the effect of the phasers for specific specifies you should try to target something in their genetic make-up.”

“I’ve tried to schedule something,” you sighed. “No one has the time.”

“No one?” 

“I’ve asked.”

“Hmmm,” he broke off, thinking for a moment. “I might know a few things.”

“You’d be willing to come in and answer some of my questions?”

“I’ll do my best. I know about the physiology of different races because, well. It’s my job. I won’t guarantee that I can answer everything that you ask.”

“No, no, that’s great! Thank you so much…. Leonard.”

He inclined his head, before taking a bite of his food. You watched him with curious eyes, and his own gaze flitted up to yours.

“What?”

“You’re just being very nice today,” you replied, smiling at him as you folded your arms and placed them on the counter in-front of you.

“Is it off-putting?”

“Slightly unnerving, but in the best way possible.”

He chuckled, not seeming offended at all. “I don’t know how exactly ‘unnerving’ can be construed as good.”

“I’m sure it can be,” you replied airily. “Somehow. And I’m not saying I’m not enjoying it. I’m just curious as to why.”

He stopped chewing, looking uncomfortable. His eyes darted around slightly, before resting on your face once again. You watched him swallow, his Adam’s apple bobbing. He laid down his cutlery on his plate, before clasping his hands on the table in-front of him. Clearing his throat, he spoke.

“I still feel… Uncomfortable about my behaviour last week. I wanted to make an effort to be kinder in general.”

You took this in, nodding slowly to yourself. “Well,” you began, taking a sip of the cup of tea before you. “I appreciate that. You don’t have to change completely though. I don’t mind you when you’re only a tiny bit grumpy.”


End file.
